Terrorism and the role of the school in surveillance

Abstract

Following the 7 July 2005 London bombings, schools have had an increasingly central role to play in the surveillance society, notably in the increasing use of dataveillance to help in the identification of potential suicide bombers. What was to most people shocking about the 7th July incidents was that the four people responsible had up to that day led fairly uneventful lives and had had no previous convictions. The ‘War on Terror’ has brought about significant changes to the state's understanding of governance of risk, and the surveillance role of schools has come a long way since the initial surveillance-based reforms introduced during the Thatcher/Major years. The greater detail now requested for the Pupil Level Annual Schools' Census (PLASC) and the development of the National Pupil Database (NPD) provide the state with a mechanism to engage effectively in a panoptic sort of the school population in an effort to render the identity of potential terrorists auditable. The author writes here in a personal capacity. The views expressed are not published to represent those of the journal or its editorial board.