NSW’s top private schools are installing CCTV to catch kids vaping

The top private schools in NSW are installing cameras in the name of safety, while others are using them to catch kids who are vaping.

THE state’s private schools are installing CCTV cameras in playgrounds and classrooms in a bid to protect students’ and teachers’ physical safety while also trying to catch the growing number of students who are surreptitiously vaping while on school grounds.

Numerous public schools have installed cameras successfully in the past 10 years to curb violence but now private schools including St Dominic’s in Kingswood in Sydney’s west are using cameras because they say it will keep students safe.

“The College uses CCTV to monitor its grounds, buildings and some learning spaces for security and safety purposes,” the school said.

It was a similar story at boys school St Edward’s at East Gosford on the Central Coast where additional funds were used to install cameras for the security of teachers and students according to its annual report last year.

And at Bishop Druitt College in Coffs Harbour, parents were notified this month cameras were being used to watch students along with vape detectors in a blitz on vaping.

“Even with CCTV, vape detectors and our wellbeing approach at the college, we know there will be ongoing conversations at home and school over the time ahead (about vaping),” the school said in a note to parents.

Bishop Druitt College in Coffs Harbour.

Other private schools who inform parents they use CCTV on site include the $22,785 a year Danebank Anglican School for Girls in Hurstville and Kambala in Rose Bay while Knox Grammar in July revealed it had also installed vape detectors.

Former principal of The King’s School Dr Tim Hawkes, who has developed an online vaping education course, said installing cameras had the potential for creating a low-trust environment in schools.

“There are good elements to this — the good elements to my mind as an educator are that schools are wanting to do all that they can to dissuade the students in their care from engaging in behaviours that could be threatening in terms of health,” he said.

“The bad thing about it is the potential for abuse and the ushering in of a brave new world situation which is essentially low trust and expresses itself in things like vape detectors.”

St Dominic's college in Kingswood said cameras helped with student safety.

Head of tobacco control at the Cancer Council of NSW Alecia Brooke said she was not surprised that schools were using CCTV cameras to catch children vaping.

“We were hearing stories from teachers saying students are hiding vapes in their jumpers and are blowing it back into their jumper sleeves so it goes undetected,” she said.

According to the Tobacco in Australia publication, smoking rates had dropped to their lowest levels in recent years to just 3 per cent of 12-15 year old teens and 14 per cent of 16-17 year old teens in 2017.

That same survey found 21 per cent of Australian high school children had tried vaping at least once -- but University of Sydney Emeritus Professor Simon Chapman said that figure would have jumped in the past 12 months because of an influx of disposable vapes from China had hit Australian shores in that time.

“The flavours which are being pitched at kids like bubblegum, lemonade, it is an attempt to get kids hooked on nicotine,” he said.

The federal government is clamping down on the sale of liquid nicotine and from October 1 this year importing nicotine will require a doctor’s prescription.

The schools mentioned in this article were contacted for comment and either did not respond or wish to comment further.