Lauren Spencer
First colleges want to force you to pay hundreds of dollars for textbooks and now they want to listen in on what is happening in the classroom? Invasion of privacy is a crime the last time I checked.
The purpose for the new intercom systems is a safety precaution. If something extremely dramatic like a student shooter or a colony of rats happen to invade the classroom the teachers would be able to press the little button to inform the sheriff’s that, “Hey, um something is wrong here we need your help.”
With the tragedies of Virginia Tech and Columbine High School campus safety is nothing to be taken lightly especially if it may happen to your school next. The intention of the intercom system is admirable, but the fact that the sheriffs will be able to listen in on the classrooms, when nothing is happening, is for the lack of a better word, creepy.
Just imagine you being the lucky student that sits closest to the “safety box.” And let’s say you and your friend are having an extremely quiet, under your breath, personal conversation about what happened the night before and the entire time the sheriff is listening.
Or what if there is a professor that has his or her own methods of teaching that doesn’t exactly follow the ‘how to teach a class’ guide and the sheriff hears their lecture and doesn’t agree. Then complains and now a great professor is on the plank of being fired because the sheriff was putting his nose in places it shouldn’t be.
Could you imagine the sheriff’s office and what it would be like? An office full of hundreds of intercoms all sounding off at the same time with students talking and professors rambling is just a headache waiting to happen. Even if there was an emergency how would the sheriff be able to hear which classroom it’s happening in? All the other classes would be over powering it with noise.
They might as well just have a sheriff sitting in the classroom armed and ready for whatever possible madness may happen.
The idea of the intercoms is absolutely great. Direct contact with the sheriff for protection without having to make a call and waiting until someone answers, is a smart idea.
I just don’t understand why they have to listen in on the class too. It feels like another sly attempt to control us.
I thought we were out of high school?