Hey, Boulder High! It’s me, Amanda, and I’m back with another edition of Really?… Boulder High. Today I will be discussing an issue that many Boulder High students face, this issue is the feeling that, as students, we are being watched all the time. While I understand the need for Boulder High to maintain a safe environment, there is a balance between safety and the privacy invasion that’s actually occurring. There is, of course, a need for some security cameras throughout the school to ensure the safety of students, but many students feel like these cameras are specifically targeted to watch us at all times and to monitor our every move–not to actually monitor potential threats. This is because the cameras cover almost every square inch of campus, including the senior lot.

The issue with having cameras in the senior lot is that the senior lot is not where potential threats will be entering the building. The purpose of these cameras is to directly monitor students and take away their privacy, even when they are in their own cars. The only place that is safe from the cameras is the bathrooms, and the only reason that they are not being monitored is because it is against the law. Since everywhere is monitored except the bathrooms, this just makes the bathrooms a hotspot for students to do the things that they don’t want to be seen on camera, thus not stopping the problem, just moving it to a different location. The constant feeling of being watched makes it hard for some students to focus on what actually matters–learning–and takes away from the whole reason that we are at school: to learn. This leaves me wondering, as always, Really?… Boulder High.