The Nelson Thomlinson School
Cumbrian school sparks outrage as it installs CCTV cameras in its toilets to catch vaping students
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by Dave Cross
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The Nelson Thomlinson School is a co-educational 11-18 Comprehensive School and Sixth Form located in Wigton, Cumbria. It has 1263 (48.6% boys 51.4% girls) on its roll, of which fewer than 10% are on free meal support.
The school has made no mention of the toilet surveillance on their Facebook page or Twitter account. The most recent communique on the website from the Headteacher is a letter from September 2019.
The local paper reports that parents were recently notified that cameras would be going up inside the toilets “for the safety of the youngsters.”
It cites one parent saying: “I can’t believe they’re doing this; the children need to have privacy. When they go to the toilets and come out it's not right that they will be getting filmed. I don’t understand why they think it is ok to film them. I have a daughter and I don’t want her being filmed while she is in the toilets.”
Sam Northwood says that there have always been cameras in the toilets, the school is simply replacing them with upgraded models to deter outbreaks of vandalism and “the illegal use of vapes in the toilet.”
Northwood told the News and Star that the cameras would not be filming children inside cubicles.
The truth is that this isn’t a simple upgrade, the school is expanding its surveillance – as the Headteacher told journalists: “We have indeed begun to extend our CCTV coverage, which already exists in a number of communal areas around the school site; all parents have been made aware.
“The toilets themselves (cubicles/urinals) are not covered by cameras – for obvious reasons.
“The original cameras were installed two decades ago and have proved over that period to be of great benefit in helping to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all pupils at our school and to maintain the best possible environment for them.
“We are very grateful to the many parents and children who have responded so positively to news of the recent extension.”
In 2013, Ofsted inspectors wrote: “The quality of leadership and management from the headteacher and senior leaders is a strength of the school. They, together with the governing body, have a very clear view of how well the school is doing and what it needs to do to improve further. Senior leaders and managers demonstrate a clear commitment and determination to drive the continued improvement of teaching and students’ achievement.”
Action being taken by The Nelson Thomlinson School mirrors some of the extreme measures adopted in some American schools including handheld metal detectors, closing toilet facilities, removing the doors from cubicles, and even calling the police to arrest vaping teens.
ASH UK and Cancer Research UK’s annual survey looking at teen use has shown that most youths who vape are or used to be smokers, constitute a very small minority, and represent a group whose numbers continue to drop.
Photo Credit:
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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