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School slammed for installing CCTV 'deterrent' in pupil toilets to clamp down on vaping and bullying
9 January 2025, 09:34
A secondary school has been slammed for installing CCTV cameras in the pupils’ toilets.
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Parents of children at Sponne School in Towcester, Northamptonshire, received an email from headteacher Graham Forbes on Tuesday detailing the school’s decision to place CCTV in the boys’ and girls’ toilets in order to act as a “deterrent” to anti-social behaviour.
However, parents and pupils alike expressed concerns about the presence of the cameras, raising questions about the school’s commitment to safeguarding practices and children’s right to privacy.
After complaints from both pupils and parents, the school yesterday confirmed that it would pause the use of the CCTV cameras until an audit had been conducted by an independent consultancy and further data protection assessments had taken place.
In the letter sent to parents earlier this week, which has been seen by LBC, Mr Forbes noted that teachers had recently “observed an increase in anti-social behaviour and vandalism in the school toilets” and received testimony from students who had cited them as an area of concern.
The letter explains that the cameras are designed to be a “deterrent to behaviour such as bullying, vandalism, vaping and other misconduct”, as well as to enable teachers to “promptly address emergencies” in the loos.
The school argued that the technology includes privacy masking, ensuring that certain sections of the video remain blurred, and that the introduction of cameras and vape detectors across the premises had resulted in a significant decline in anti-social behaviour.
However, parents voiced their dismay at the decision.
One parent, Simon, whose child attends the mixed secondary school, told LBC he worried that it could “undermine [children’s] sense of trust and safety at the school”.
“My child and their friends said they no longer feel comfortable using the toilets as a result of this, which I imagine will only lead to further issues. I completely understand the need to address anti-social behaviour and bullying, but this feels like a step too far,” Simon lamented.
He added: “A lot of the concern revolves around who will have access to the footage from such a personal environment and how it will be monitored. There’s understandable worry about what could happen if this footage were to end up in the wrong hands, and whether we can trust the ‘blocking technology’ being used to obscure certain areas.
“It reflects poorly on the school’s approach to dealing with these problems directly. There was also no consultation with parents before they made this decision which seems incredibly ill judged.”
Another parent complained: “I have phoned the school twice today as my daughter refused to go to the toilet. It's the wrong time of the month for her and she refuses to gonot knowing what is going on.
“A friend of mine works in the kitchen at the school and her daughter refused to go to school today because of this and went to work with her dad instead. Doesn’t that say something when she works at the school?”
Noting these concerns, the school has pledged to start a consultation with parents and guardians.
Sponne school is not the first to use CCTV in pupils’ toilets.
A ruling from the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2018 allowed for cameras to be positioned in school toilets in ‘exceptional circumstances’.
Two schools on the Isle of Man, for example, placed cameras in their students’ toilets in an attempt to reduce the amount of class time that was being lost to lavatory breaks, though they were ordered to remove them in April 2024 after being told they were breaching data protection legislation.
But speaking to LBC, safeguarding consultant Joanna Nicolas defended the school’s position.
"It is not uncommon for abuse to happen in school toilets. I would say to parents who understandably may well be shocked and horrified to hear of a school doing this, that very sadly bullies and perpetrators of abuse operate in dark corners and operate in areas where they are unseen.”
Ms Nicholas added: “The fact that it has come to this that we need to protect children by putting cameras into these areas is a very sad thing, but if it protects children I would say it is a good thing - and it will protect children."
Approached by LBC for comment, headteacher Graham Forbes said: “We prioritise the privacy of our students and staff. Our use of CCTV is fully compliant with the UK GDPR, and we have conducted a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) to ensure all measures are in place to protect personal data.
"CCTV in sensitive areas use privacy masking which obscures specific areas within a video frame, ensuring those areas remain private and are not recorded or monitored."
