
A NY School District Defies State, Plans To Proceed With Facial Recognition Test - edtechstrats
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/daveyalba/lockport-school-district-defies-new-york-education
======
radcon
I'm so glad I grew up during a time when you didn't have to worry about every
single second of your life potentially being captured on video and used for
some nefarious purpose.

I can't imagine being a kid in this type of environment. Then again, many of
the kids who will be unwillingly subjected to this probably aren't informed
enough to understand the potential long-term consequences of pervasive
surveillance, which makes it all the more evil.

It's appalling that they spent $1.4 million (so far) on this rather than
putting the money towards more useful things like teacher salaries or after-
school programs. Maybe if they improved the overall school experience they
wouldn't need to monitor the kids like prisoners?

~~~
ErikVandeWater
Paul Graham has an essay on how (US) school is mostly used as a prison

~~~
manfredo
"Mostly used as a prison" is a mischaracterization of that essay. The paper
identified analogues between prison social behavior and school social
behavior, and hypothesized that this shows that these patterns happen whenever
a population is put in a society without their choice.

~~~
ErikVandeWater
He literally call schools prisons:

"What bothers me is not that the kids are kept in prisons, but that (a) they
aren't told about it, and (b) the prisons are run mostly by the inmates."

Source:
[http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html)

~~~
StudentStuff
Public Schools force you to deal with a wide cross-section of society,
especially compared to private schools (mainly mid to upper crust society) and
colleges (people are there by choice, often after being part of the workforce
and deciding to further themselves).

In many ways K-12 schools are run like prisons, with administrators playing
god and throwing fits when challenged about their petty actions, students
trapped in an environment not of their choosing, and society enforcing this
structure.

I wish there were more diverse options for schooling, as I would've been much
more interested in K-12 school had I been encouraged to dive into a subject,
then asked to prove my knowledge, without the distraction of other subjects
splitting my focus. College definitely offers much more flexibility in this
regard, which has made for a much better experience.

~~~
saagarjha
Depends on where you went to public school. My southern Bay Area public
schools consisted almost exclusively of well off students because of housing
prices.

~~~
StudentStuff
Sounds like an extreme outlier, areas with such concentrated wealth which has
crowded out the working class and lower-middle class are rare, most students
will never attend a school like that.

~~~
saagarjha
It’s an outlier, but not really an extreme one: I don’t think my school
differs significantly from the several dozen that are present in gentrified
neighborhoods across the state.

~~~
StudentStuff
There are nearly 1000 high schools in California, few students will ever be in
the gentrified schools you speak of:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high_schools_in_Califo...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high_schools_in_California)

45% of students in California are poor or slightly above poor:
[https://www.ppic.org/publication/child-poverty-in-
california...](https://www.ppic.org/publication/child-poverty-in-california/)

------
deogeo
The stated aims of the system are easily covertly expanded (and there is
_ample_ history to indicate that will happen) to turn the school into a
panopticon, building a social graph and personality profile of kids as they
grow up.

To me this looks like an openly hostile act.

~~~
beenBoutIT
If it allows the school to accurately identify the most promising students
it's worth it. How many kids with potential fall through the cracks now?

~~~
Bjartr
All[1] of them. All the kids. They all have the potential for fulfilling lives
that contribute to society.

[1] Fine, almost all, there will be exceptions, but the goals of the education
system should include making exceptions as rare as possible. At the very least
I'll claim a belief that achieving a low enough rate of exceptions so as to
make them negligible in practice.

------
grecy
I look forward to hordes of teenagers pushing back against this - wearing
hats, burkas, sunglasses, excessive makeup etc. etc.

At least, I sure hope they will.

~~~
whatshisface
It's already against the rules to cover your face in many schools. Besides, if
the system can't recognize you, you will be marked as absent - so the
punishment for defeating the surveillance system is the same as the punishment
for breaking the rule it's intended to enforce. Those teenagers are dependent
on the civic involvement of adults, they can't save themselves.

~~~
jdsully
In the 90s/2000s we were taunted with a nefarious “permanent record” that
recorded all our evil deeds. Do they still use that on students? It even came
up in a few Simpson’s episodes.

Somehow I haven’t seen anyone actually be negatively affected by this supposed
record.

~~~
beenBoutIT
'Internet' replaced the permanent record' and now kids who act up enough to
get news coverage end up with a permanent record of whatever they did.

~~~
jdsully
One minor difference: The permanent record was an official document. Twitter
mobbing is a failing of our private citizens.

------
otakucode
Because children and adolescents aren't people, they often have surveillance
and control technologies tested on them. And when the surveillance and control
technologies significantly increase school violence (can you name a school
shooting at a school that didn't have cameras?), they conclude that more
technology is needed to surveil and control. I imagine it's a booming
business.

------
gumby
I am reminded of the absurd threat in the film "Rock and Roll High School"
that "This will go on your _permanent record_ "

Nowadays it will.

------
quickben
A bit incomplete title then. They are also testing legal boundaries,
population reaction, and few other things that are morally objectionable.

~~~
walterbell
We need to invent a category of property rights for the results of such
testing against non-consenting populations. That would create an economic
incentive for lawyers to do what they do best.

We already have legal precedent for paying reparations for undisclosed tests
against civilians.

------
ilamont
Lockport is an old factory town on the Erie Canal, not far from Buffalo and
Niagara Falls. The population is about 20,000 people. North of the city is
orchards and farmland, south are the outer suburbs of Buffalo. It's not a
place known for high tech, nor is it known for high municipal spending.

The backstory of how this came about would surely be interesting.

~~~
souterrain
A plausible story is that Lockport is the county seat of Niagara County, NY,
which has three land (bridge) crossings with Canada, and therefore has
significant USCIS presence throughout the county. I can imagine a joint task
force involving county law enforcement and USCIS. Most schools in NY State
have armed police (“school resource officer”) present. They probably all go to
the same sporting events, drink at the same pubs.

Nothing like a refreshing beverage and discussing pervasive surveillance
technology for the youth of America.

~~~
debacle
Lockport is not the county seat of Niagara County. It's a dilapidated, failing
school district that's experiencing a huge amount of wealth flight as it's
situated ~10 mins from two quite prominent school districts.

~~~
souterrain
I won’t argue the challenges of the school district, but Lockport, NY is most
certainly the county seat of Niagara County, NY.

[https://data.ny.gov/widgets/4xc7-bukh](https://data.ny.gov/widgets/4xc7-bukh)

------
salawat
Parents.

The time has come to teach your chilluns the virtues of laser pointers, spray
paint, and civil disobedience.

It won't take long, I guarantee you.

------
paulvs
Slightly confusing how although the article's opening paragraph currently says
"...an explicit order" from the state education department, it goes on to
quote it later where it can be seen to be just a recommendation.

------
misiti3780
Fun Fact: Chris Sacca is from Lockport and graduated from Lockport High
School. Timothy McVeigh is also from there.

------
LinuxBender
Did the parents approve the use of the photos by a 3rd party? Were the parents
advised of the policies around data retention and data destruction? Will this
data remain in the system after the children are adults?

------
rb808
No problems from me. NY schools already have a security guard on duty that
watches everyone coming and going through the front door. Its not always easy
job, anything that can help them would be great.

~~~
debacle
> NY schools already have a security guard on duty that watches everyone
> coming and going through the front door.

Nope.

------
kwhitefoot
Why don't schools concentrate on education?

------
rgrieselhuber
Yet another reason to avoid public schools, if you can.

------
daodedickinson
Good gravy. I'd go into hiding if there was anywhere left to go. Wish I was
religious so I could try to join a monestary.

~~~
spraak
If you're under 25 you could join the Kaua'i Hindu Monastery.
[https://www.himalayanacademy.com/livespiritually/monastic-
li...](https://www.himalayanacademy.com/livespiritually/monastic-life/how-to)

