EDITORIAL

It’s a question of whether the end justifies the means.

The end, in this case, is keeping Newport-Mesa Unified School District

campuses free of vandals and unwanted intruders.

Apparently, in some cases, the means are hidden cameras.

Certainly, there is no arguing that the community shouldn’t tolerate

vandalism, which costs the district more than $25,000 a year -- money

that would be better spent on students.

But the very idea of hidden cameras, and the Orwellian Big Brother

picture it paints, should make parents and administrators uncomfortable,

at best, and potentially outraged at the possibility of the cameras being

put to inappropriate uses.

According to school officials, principals and administrators would be

able to access images on their computers -- from work or home -- at the

sound of an alarm, and all overnight activity would be stored and easily

accessible on a hard drive.

The system sounds convenient, but do parents really want their

children to be under such surveillance?

Using hidden cameras is an extreme measure, one that flouts the

presumption of innocent until proved guilty, especially among children we

like to consider “innocents.”

The district could establish a firm policy that the cameras be used

only to track acts of vandalism or late-night intruders, but that still

leaves a more tangibly disturbing potential: that these cameras would be

put to ill use. It’s a small chance, yes, a slim possibility that someone

would wire one extra camera or figure out how to rotate the lens where it

isn’t supposed to be.

But there’s a chance, nonetheless. And it’s a bit of electronic

wizardry that no safeguard or district policy can protect against.

There’s just no way to be 100% certain these means will be followed.

And, in this case, the end isn’t worth that.