ALBANY, NY (WRGB) — The opening of Albany’s first co-ed charter school, KIPP Capital High School, has sparked privacy concerns among parents due to the installation of surveillance cameras in the bathroom areas. The state-of-the-art facility features an open design for the bathrooms, with no doors and cameras positioned opposite the sinks.
Parents of a female student, who wish to remain anonymous, expressed their unease after discovering the cameras during a school orientation.
“Our reaction was that we thought that that was an invasion of privacy. They did address it because I know that we were not the only parents that were concerned.”
School staff assured parents that the cameras do not capture images inside the bathroom stalls and only monitor the sink area. However, the parents remain concerned, stating, “It faces the mirrors, and I know, you know, children in their teenage years, especially women, come out and adjust themselves in the mirrors and those types of things.”
The parents compared the setup to a prison environment, saying:
“There’s no door to the bathroom anyway – It just feels like, like you said, an invasion of privacy and it’s very over-institutionalized almost like a prison.”
They hope to see changes implemented to address these privacy concerns.
