This zine workbook is a guide to help understand how surveillance is used to criminalize and police students at school, at home, and in their communities. As the National Campaign, we define school surveillance as the state, its agents, and the private sector’s monitoring and interpreting of information and data to control, punish, criminalize, police, and profit off of our students, families, and communities. Schools are increasingly using surveillance as a false solution for real issues that young people are facing – often with little evidence, oversight, or accountability. School surveillance is an over $3 billion industry, fueled in part by federal laws that provide grant money for schools to spend on keeping students “safe.”
Students and communities are surveilled so frequently, they are often in ways that are hard to see. The goal of this zine is to shed light on how surveillance is happening, why it is harmful, and to let you know of your rights so you are better equipped to fight back against the growing school surveillance state. It will take all of us organizing for real safety and supports to win!