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In a move intended to keep students safer, a local school district implemented sweeping video surveillance systems. Parents had no idea it was happening.

Editor’s note: This article is first in our series called “Panopticon: The Berkshires,” exploring various types of public surveillance in the area.

Increasingly, schools occupy the uncomfortable position of having to create a free and open learning environment that can also transform into a medium-security facility at a moment’s notice. Incidents like school shootings are at one relatively rare, horrific extreme, while bullying and other conduct violations occupy the troubling, but mundane other extreme. Each event has to be anticipated, monitored, and responded to by staff who would rather spend their days pursuing their main calling — teaching kids.