The National Federation of Parents supports the installation of audio-video surveillance systems in all schools and high schools in Romania. The parents announced in a press release that this measure is necessary to prevent and combat acts of violence in the school environment.
Audio-video surveillance will prevent violence in schools. Photo source: archive
“The school must remain a space for learning, a safe environment for all participants in the educational act, students and teachers alike. That is why, in recent years, we have insisted on the need to install audio-video surveillance systems in all pre-university education units, in response to proposals from school communities (parents, teachers, students)“, states the statement sent by the National Federation of Parents.
As for the access to the filmed images, it must be allowed only to the competent authorities, “in order to clarify and investigate reports of acts of violence or destruction of property“. And whoever violates this provision should be severely punished, the parents demand.
They request that educational institutions receive real help from the authorities in the process of implementing surveillance systems. “Equally, we support the need to support methodological, logistical and financial education units, so that they can take the appropriate technical and organizational measures regarding the way of storing and processing personal data, obtained from the recordings of the cameras installed in the units of education, to guarantee the security and integrity of these records”, it is also shown in the communiqué.
The announcement comes in the context in which the representatives of the National Authority for the Supervision of Personal Data Processing declared in a televised intervention that they do not support this project. “The National Supervisory Authority for the Processing of Personal Data does not agree with the proposal of the Ministry of Education. We consider it an excessive processing of personal data. The parents are not consulted, the cases in which this is necessary are not justified video surveillance. It is not established who at the level of the educational unit takes such a decision to establish the rooms“, said Alina Săvoiu, the legal director of the institution.
