"Eyes on me regardless": youth responses to high school surveillance.

"Eyes on me regardless": youth responses to high school surveillance. In public schools across the country, students are encountering theeffects of a variety of security measures Noun 1. security measures - measures taken as a precaution against theft or espionage or sabotage etc.; "military security has been stepped up since the recent uprising"security designed to make schoolssafer. Students enter and exit their schools through metal detectors,scanning machines, and under the suspicious stares and booming shouts ofsecurity officials and police officers. On their way to classes, theymove through hallways, stairwells, and sometimes classrooms mounted withsurveillance cameras. From California to Florida, Washington to Maine,urban and suburban public school officials and government policymakersare choosing to respond to issues related to student violence and schoolsafety by deploying an array of surveilling techniques and technologies. New York City New York City:see New York, city. New York CityCity (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , home of more surveillance cameras per square footthan any other city in the country, leads the pack in developing andimplementing school-based surveillance initiatives (Ruck ruck?1?n.1. a. A multitude; a throng.b. The undistinguished crowd or ordinary run of persons or things.2. People who are followers, not leaders.3. Sportsa. et al., 2005;Boal, 1998). In 2004, City Council passed a bill to install surveillancecameras and metal detectors in every public school by 2006 and allocated$120 million in the five year capital budget for new security cameraswhich cost approximately $75,000 per school to install (Bennett, 2004).In fact, the City's Impact schools and nine other large highschools, with large African-American and Latino populations, were toppriority to receive cameras, metal detectors, and heavy police presence.Ostensibly os��ten��si��ble?adj.Represented or appearing as such; ostensive: His ostensible purpose was charity, but his real goal was popularity. designed to improve school safety, the effects of thetechnologies and personnel required to implement surveillance aremanifold--many of which are counterproductive to safety, and, in somecases, actually foment fo��ment?tr.v. fo��ment��ed, fo��ment��ing, fo��ments1. To promote the growth of; incite.2. To treat (the skin, for example) by fomentation. violence. Instead of a greater sense of safety inand around school, along with an active and civicly-minded sense ofschool community, students describe a feeling of danger and disillusion dis��il��lu��sion?tr.v. dis��il��lu��sioned, dis��il��lu��sion��ing, dis��il��lu��sionsTo free or deprive of illusion.n.1. The act of disenchanting.2. The condition or fact of being disenchanted. . More and more, public schools are becoming part of the network ofpost-9/11, state-sponsored surveillance--spaces in which studentsexperience firsthand what it is to be monitored, feared, contained, andharassed all in the name of safety and protection. Even after securitymeasures are installed, students refer to an increase in the number ofviolent incidents inside their schools, and attest to the harassment Ask a Lawyer QuestionCountry: United States of AmericaState: NevadaI recently moved to nev.from abut have been going back to ca. every 2 to 3 weeks for med. they experience at the hands of police and school safety agents (SSA (Serial Storage Architecture) A fault tolerant peripheral interface from IBM that transfers data at 80 and 160 Mbytes/sec. SSA uses SCSI commands, allowing existing software to drive SSA peripherals, which are typically disk drives. )(1) now located inside their schools. (2) As one student put it:"If you would walk outside when the late bell rings, you would hear[the security staff yelling] 'Get out. Go home. Go home' ...They do not want us there. And even when we're inside the building,they do not want us there. So it's a constant 'I don'twant you here' typa thing." These stories match up with current research noting that low-incomeyouth of color not of the white race; - commonly meaning, esp. in the United States, of negro blood, pure or mixed.See also: Color are being pushed out of public spaces and areincreasingly monitored by authority and placed under the threat ofcriminalization crim��i��nal��ize?tr.v. crim��i��nal��ized, crim��i��nal��iz��ing, crim��i��nal��iz��es1. To impose a criminal penalty on or for; outlaw.2. To treat as a criminal. (see Fine et al., 2003; Ruck et al, 2005). Correspondentwith research that contends that with greater police presence comes anelevation in arrests and incarceration Confinement in a jail or prison; imprisonment.Police officers and other law enforcement officers are authorized by federal, state, and local lawmakers to arrest and confine persons suspected of crimes. The judicial system is authorized to confine persons convicted of crimes. rates for youth of color,especially African-Americans (Poe-Yagamata & Jones, 2000), thestudents with whom I worked are equally aware of heightened scrutiny intheir school, as well as in surrounding neighborhoods and around theirhomes. These studies illuminate some of what gets forgotten in the searchfor greater school security and fewer incidents of school violence: thatschool-wide surveillance policies also produce indirect andcounterproductive consequences on urban students, especially but notonly those already marginalized by the school system. The very presenceof urban youth, educational theorist Henry Giroux Henry Giroux, born September 18 1943 in Providence, is a US cultural critic. He is one of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy in the United States, and is best known for his pioneering work in public pedagogy, cultural studies, youth studies, higher education, media argues, prompts in thepublic imagination a "rhetoric of fear, control, andsurveillance" (2003, p. 554). Loic Wacquant refers to this level ofscrutiny as the phenomenon of "social panopticism" in whichsocial service bureaucracies, like schools and other institutions, arecalled on to use the information and human means they possess toexercise close surveillance on 'problem populations' (2001, p.84). Failing to address the larger economic, political, and socialconditions faced by poor and working-class youth of color, urban schoolpolicies and reform agendas are generated in a context of heightenedfear and moral panic Moral panic is a sociological term, coined by Stanley Cohen, meaning a reaction by a group of people based on the false or exaggerated perception that some cultural behavior or group, frequently a minority group or a subculture, is dangerously deviant and poses a menace to society. . Poor urban high schools have largely become, orare becoming, sites of containment and control. They are spaces whereschool policies which involve surveillance technologies and techniquesget tested on youth bodies already framed by suspicion (Ruck et al.,2005; Saltman & Gabbard, 2003; Garland, 2001; Males, 1996; Noguera1995). Neoliberalism ne��o��lib��er��al��ism?n.A political movement beginning in the 1960s that blends traditional liberal concerns for social justice with an emphasis on economic growth.ne , or the retreat of social welfare programs matched byan increase of social control polices, is helping to foment a climate offear and surveillance. Michelle Fine (2006) argues that privatization privatization:see nationalization. privatizationTransfer of government services or assets to the private sector. State-owned assets may be sold to private owners, or statutory restrictions on competition between privately and publicly owned and what she names the "privileged public sphere The public sphere is a concept in continental philosophy and critical theory that contrasts with the private sphere, and is the part of life in which one is interacting with others and with society at large. " is not onlya re-alignment of public dollars, but also public bodies. In this sense,surveillance and security policies in schools are strategies for movingthese public bodies around; not only to and from classrooms, but alsofrom school to prison. Surveillance trends in schools are not merelymore cops and more cameras, but are also symptoms that emerge in thecontext of neoliberalism--represented by a range of educational reformagendas and policies. Expecting surveillance and security measure toaddress the consequences of excessive over-crowding, financial inequity,and lack of educational services such as counseling and peer mediationsignals an unwillingness to deal with underlying macroeconomic mac��ro��ec��o��nom��ics?n. (used with a sing. verb)The study of the overall aspects and workings of a national economy, such as income, output, and the interrelationship among diverse economic sectors. issuesfaced by schools and educators. In the context of No Child Left Behind (NCLB NCLB No Child Left Behind (US education initiative)), we witness theretreat of public funding Public funding is money given from tax revenue or other governmental sources to an individual, organization, or entity. See alsoPublic funding of sports venues Research funding Funding body and a demand for state or federal (andprivate) control and accountability. Although it gave students infailing schools a chance to enroll in successful district schools andrequired schools and districts to be held responsible for itsunder-prepared students and teachers, it failed to allocate resourcesand funding to meet these needs and held them accountable for outcomesthey were ill-prepared to meet. It is a good example of anaccountability system that is punitive--forcing schools and educators toimpose NCLB's standards without compromise or questions. Such anaccountability system fails to address the myriad structural factorsthat contribute to struggling schools. Ultimately, the law serves topenalize pe��nal��ize?tr.v. pe��nal��ized, pe��nal��iz��ing, pe��nal��iz��es1. To subject to a penalty, especially for infringement of a law or official regulation. See Synonyms at punish.2. schools and educators--measuring compliance solely by theincrease in standardized test scores of its students. Despite animportant intent, NCLB has done little to close the'achievement' gap of Black and Latino students--with only 38%of New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of City's public high school students graduating in fouryears. At the same time, NCLB represents a financial windfall forstandardized testing and textbook companies and has awarded millions ofdollars to security companies. Homeland security-related business issaid to be the economy's "fastest-growing sector--jumping from$28 billion in 2003 to a projected $170 billion by 2015" (HomelandSecurity Research Corporation, 2005 as quoted by Editors, 2005). Students learn to avoid security at all costs; and they learn thatthe rules they are expected to follow are not consistently imposed.Interactions with security become moments in which students note thefailure of surveillance--on some days they'll "get caught forgoing to the bathroom without a hall pass" and on other days theydo not. Following the school's rules, then, means being subjectedto 'the presence of an absence' of authority and experiencethe material and psychological impact of these policy trends. What theyare responding to, my research contends, is not merely the violence offeeling so heavily watched, but the violence that accompanies unjustschool policies directed at low-income, urban youth of color students inthese schools, student who are deeply aware that the persistentadvancement of surveillance measures inside their schools hasill-intended consequences on them and their education. Given the context urban youth find themselves in--appropriatelydescribed by one student as "eyes on me regardless" (3)--whatthen becomes of student resistance to the oppressive and often punitiveconditions they face inside their schools? Although my larger studyaddresses the political economy informing school-based surveillancepolicies for youth of color in urban areas, my central research focushas been to trace student resistance to these policies. Students narratestories of fear and frustration. But they also narrate stories ofresistance. Foucault (1980) reminds us that where the forces ofdomination reside, so too do the forces of resistance. In school spacesthere is a multitude of both; however when power masquerades or isconcealed through mechanisms of surveillance, it re-defines what"counts" as resistance. Theorists generally disagree aboutwhat constitutes resistance: some argue that it must be collectivestruggle with specific goals and intentions (Hermans, 2001; Aronowitz& Giroux, 1985); others note that while efforts at resistance arealways active under domination, they are harder to detect and may appearcomplicitous with power (Kelley, 1990; Scott, 1985). Ashforth and Mael(1998) outline a basic framework for understanding the overlappingnature of the concept. They argue that resistance may be directed at athreat or that it may be indirectly targeted at a threat (diffuse); thatit may be collective or individual; that it may be authorized by aninstitution, or remain unauthorized; and, finally, that it may befacilitative of an institution's goals or oppositional to them. Keeping this basic framework in mind as a guide, this article doesnot take up what constitutes resistance, but rather what we might learnabout resistance and surveillance by looking at how students at a Bronx,New York, high school have responded to security initiatives recentlyimposed on them. It discusses three responses: the protest; tacticalavoidance; and what I am calling emergent participation. I will addresseach of these strategies in depth and follow with a brief considerationof what they teach us about resistance. Taken together, these responsesoffer us a chance to consider the multiple forms that resistance takesand those that emerge over time, in this case, over the course of aschool year. I will begin by considering what is perhaps the mostpromising and definitely the most visible response to school-widesurveillance measures: a student-organized walkout of 1,500 studentsthat took place at a large comprehensive high school in the Bronx, NewYork, in late September 2005. But before attending to the protest, Iwill give a brief history of New York City This article traces the history of New York City, New York. For the history of the State of New York, see the article History of New York.The region was inhabited by about 5000 [1] school security policy. Situating Surveillance in Terms of the New York City School System Being the largest school system in the country, New York Cityschools see their share of violent incidences. (4) In 1992, during DavidDinkins' tenure as mayor, two teenagers were shot to death atpoint-blank range the extent of the apparent right line of a ball discharged.See also: Point-blank in the hallway of a Brooklyn high school Brooklyn High School may refer to: Brooklyn Center High School in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Brooklyn High School (Ohio) in Brooklyn, Ohio Brooklyn High School of the Arts in New York City Brooklyn Technical High School in New York City . Since then,high crime schools have been the focus of intensive security and safetyinitiatives. That same year, the teacher's union counted 129 gunincidents--a jump from forty five the previous year (1990-1991). Inearly 1992 the school board installed weapons-scanning metal detectorsystems in the forty-one high schools with the highest number of violentincidents. For students in high schools that were deemedhigh-crime--schools that researcher John Devine John Devine is the name of: John Devine (cyclist) (born 1985), American racing cyclist John Devine (footballer) (born 1958), Irish footballer John Devine (GAA) (born 1983), Irish Gaelic footballer John Devine (Australian rules football) (1996) characterizes as"lower-tier" high schools--entering school required thatstudents enter through side entrances, wait to meet security guards orsafety security officers (SSO See single sign-on and CSO. SSO - single sign-on ), and pass through identity card machines,metal detectors and backpack scanners. Often this would delay studentsbeing on time for first period. Mayor Giuliani's tenure as mayor, 1994-2002, became synonymouswith synonymous withadjective equivalent to, the same as, identical to, similar to, identified with, equal to, tantamount to, interchangeable with, one and the same as the "broken windows" theory of crime prevention whichstates that if minor offenses are not addressed, they will lead to moreserious crime. By 1994, the number of high schools with metal detectorshad jumped to forty-seven. Also in 1994, the federal Gun-Free SchoolsAct of 1994 and other 'zero tolerance' policies were beingpassed at the federal and state level (Giroux, 2003). 'Zerotolerance' policies accord mandatory sentencing A mandatory sentence is a court decision setting where judicial discretion is limited by law. Typically, people convicted of certain crimes must be punished with at least a minimum number of years in prison. Mandatory sentencing laws vary from country to country. and "threestrikes and you're out" responses to every infraction Violation or infringement; breach of a statute, contract, or obligation.The term infraction is frequently used in reference to the violation of a particular statute for which the penalty is minor, such as a parking infraction. INFRACTION. , fromthe minor to the major. In 1998, the mayor handed over the schoolsecurity guard contract to the New York Police New York Police may refer to: New York City Police (NYPD) New York State Police Port Authority Police(PAPD) Department (NYPD NYPD New York City Police Department (since 1845; New York City, NY, USA)NYPD New York Play Development ). Newsecurity recruits were to be trained at John Jay College of CriminalJustice John Jay College of Criminal Justice:see New York, City University of. and would report directly to the NYPD, not to school authorities(see also NYCLU NYCLU New York Civil Liberties Union , 2007). Applying "broken windows" theory as an approach to schoolsafety is excessively problematic. For one, "broken windows"refuses to address root causes and instead takes aim at the appearanceof problems. It holds that any sign of 'visible disorder' mustbe addressed or it will lead to more serious crime. Schools withpopulations over 3,000 regularly appear disordered. Coupled with ourculture's fear of urban youth, urban schools where youth congregatein large numbers can and do represent 'visible disorder' forauthority. Instead of addressing over-crowding--the issue that students,teachers, and principals generally cite as the cause of schoolviolence--a "broken windows" approach targets non-criminalbehaviors as if they were criminal (for a lengthier discussion of this,see Nolan, 2007). (5) In 2004 Mayor Bloomberg, who placed the NYC NYCabbr.New York CityNYCNew York City public schools undermayoral control, introduced the Impact Schools initiative--a jointeffort by the New York Police Department and the Department ofEducation. Together, the departments isolated the 22 middle and highschools with "higher than average number of criminal incidents,transfers of students due to safety violations, and what the Departmentof Education terms 'early warning problems' such as low schoolattendance and disorderly behavior Noun 1. disorderly behavior - any act of molesting, interrupting, hindering, agitating, or arousing from a state of repose or otherwise depriving inhabitants of the peace and quiet to which they are entitled " (Drum Major Institute This article reads like a news release, or is otherwise written in an overly promotional tone.Please help [ rewrite this article] from a to be less promotional, per Wikipedia . , 2005, p.2). These schools, according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. the mayor's office, account for 13percent of all the crime in the system. As such, they receive the bulkof security initiatives and dollars. The NYPD's "school safetytask force" includes 200 uniformed officers (dedicated solely toImpact Schools) and augmented scanning and security measures. In 2004,it received $6.25 million from the U.S. Department of Justice toimplement these measures. The results are mixed: in January 2005, thecity claimed that major crime was down 43 percent in a subset of the 16high schools where the program had been implemented. Other schools,however, experienced an increase in crime while in the program. TheNational Center for Schools and Communities at Fordham University Fordham University(fôr`dəm), in New York City; Jesuit; coeducational; founded as St. John's College 1841, chartered as a university 1846; renamed 1907. Fordham College for men and Thomas More College for women merged in 1974. (NCSC (National Computer Security Center) The arm of the U.S. National Security Agency that defines criteria for trusted computer products, which are embodied in the Orange Book and Red Book. )found however that the DOE's numbers reporting a decline at Impactschools were not statistically significant compared to the decline incrime figures in other high schools (Phenix, 2006). The Mayor's2007 Management Report pointed to a 21% jump in major and minor schoolcrime in 2006 as compared to 2005, revealing that cameras and othersurveillance systems in schools are not doing the job they were intendedto do, and quite possible altering school environments in such a waythat they are no longer conducive to learning. What this history and these initiatives currently amount to interms of surveillance in New York City schools is a range of securitytechnologies: digital or analog video The original video recording method that stores continuous waves of red, green and blue intensities. In analog video, the number of rows is fixed. There are no real columns, and the maximum detail is determined by the frequency response of the analog system. cameras; metal detectors, scanningwands, ID cards, Internet tracking, biometric fingerprinting and facerecognition systems, transparent lockers and book bags, electronicgates, two-way radios. These technologies exist to various degrees (andfor various purposes and with varying results) in top-tier, middle-tier,and lower-tier high schools. As of 2004, of the 1,300 city schools inNew York City, only 155 had security cameras. That year, city councilofficials passed a bill to install surveillance cameras and metaldetectors in every public school by 2006. The current number of schoolswith video cameras has yet to be reported to be spoken of; to be mentioned, whether favorably or unfavorably.See also: Report ; and no evidence exists tosuggest that video surveillance is preventative of school crimes(Monahan, 2007). (6) State senator Noun 1. state senator - a member of a state senatesenator - a member of a senate Bill Perkins There have been several well-known people named Bill Perkins, including: Bill Perkins (saxophonist) (1924–2003), jazz musician of the West Coast "Cool" school. is critical of video surveillance inschools because of its racial dimension. He was quoted in City LimitsWeekly stating that "there is a racist tinge to this as far asI'm concerned--the vast majority of kids they are surveilling inthis way are children of color and low income. We, as democracy and acity especially, step across the line only when it comes to certainelements of our constituency" (Winston, 2007). In fact, theCity's Impact Schools and nine other large high schools, with largeAfrican-American and Latino populations, were top priority to receivecameras, along with metal detectors and heavy police presence. Methodology This article is drawn from qualitative data collected as part of alarger research study which involves 20 youth participants--an admixtureof boys and girls boys and girlsmercurialisannua. of color (predominantly Latino and African-American)between the ages of 15 and 23, from New York City. Half of them comefrom an after-school poetry organization, Urban Word NYC (7); the otherhalf come from a large comprehensive High School in the Bronx which willremain unnamed. The research design consisted of close observation inand between both sites; one-on-one interviews with all of them and focusgroups with some of them; and some shadowing. The high school featuredin this article is populated by close to 5,000 low-income youth of colorfrom its surrounding areas. It is a large, old, over-crowded urban NewYork City high school located in the Northwest Bronx. Students aretracked upon entrance into the school; one of the school'sspecialized programs has a strong reputation even among top-tier publichigh schools. In addition to all being what I am calling middle-rangestudents, (8) perhaps the most telling feature that connects all thesestudents is that they are all self-identified writers or rappers. Thosefrom the high school have helped co-found the school's first hiphop hip-hop? or hip hopn.1. A popular urban youth culture, closely associated with rap music and with the style and fashions of African-American inner-city residents.2. Rap music.adj. poetry club (Spoken Ink)--a turn of events I will address at theconclusion of this article. Student Perceptions of Everyday Surveillance In his book Maximum Security (1996), educational researcher andethnographer John Devine chronicles how student violence in New YorkCity's public school system has become normalized. Devine suggeststhat youth violence increases as school personnel (administrators,teachers, security) relinquish responsibility for reprimanding andcontrolling students. He argues that schools have become sites whichignore student violence altogether or evade it by unleashing a regime oftechnological surveillance devices such as metal detectors and scanningmachines. Their cumulative effect is to distance school personnel fromstudent bodies. Devine contends that because behavioral rules are neverenforced by teachers and administrators, the school systems' rulesproduce a phenomenon he refers to as the "marshmallow marshmallow/marsh��mal��low/ (mahrsh��mel?o) (-mal?o) a perennial Eurasian herb, Althaea officinalis, effect"--"where students pushed a rule, the system, like amarshmallow, gave way" (p. 109). My research suggests that we mustcomplicate this dynamic in order to understand the effects ofsurveillance today. Furthermore, Pedro Noguera (1995) has argued that commonlypracticed safety measures safety measures,n.pl actions (e.g., use of glasses, face masks) taken to protect patients and office personnel from such known hazards as particles and aerosols from high-speed rotary instruments, mercury vapor, radiation exposure, anesthetic and , such as the use of surveillance cameras,metal detectors, and security officials, tend to perpetuate instead ofreduce violence. My research looks closely at these 'safetymeasures' and asks students what and how they think about them. Tenyears after Noguera and Devine's work, my research suggests that itis the combination of sophisticated surveillance technologies and arange of security personnel with differing levels of authority that helpto ensure that the "system" performs less like a marshmallowand more like an intractable, yet ineffectual police state. It isapparent that a new playground of rules and resistances is operating inpublic schools today. The youth I interviewed and observed are keenly aware of whatsurveillance entails. They believe it can protect them in certaincircumstances. But in other contexts, that it creeps in and takessomething. It unsettles and prods. It observes on the one hand, andprofiles on the other. Whereas one kind of watching feels protective;another feels punitive. Exploring the various locations and ways inwhich they feel watched, youth participants rarely had troubledistinguishing one from the other, as Rafael, a student, clearlyarticulates: Surveilling is watching like stalking almost. Like if I was to observe you, I would observe you only for this moment. Surveillance is constant, often. Like if they was to observe me, they would observe the hair, or how my nose is always runny, or something like that. But if they was to be surveilling, they'd find out my habits. I like drawing. I write with a grafitti handstyle or I take the train home. stuff that they're not supposed to know out of observation. When asked to describe how they think school security officialsperceived them, the youth participants listed the following adjectives:up to no good, hoodlums, felonists, delinquents, loud trouble-makers,criminals, deviants, either selling drugs or wanna-be future rappers,wearing baggy jeans and hoodies, or short skirts if you're a girl.As David, an African-American male student, put it: "if you looklike a description, if you look suspicious, you'll be confrontedmost of the time." In this regard, the sentiment "eyes on meregardless" keenly expresses the double-bind that middle-rangestudents find themselves in at school. On one hand they are beingwatched by security officers and other authority figures; and on theother hand, they are watched from all sides by their peers--asked toproject an outward posture or pose depending on where they come from andwho they associate with (Dance, 2002). At this juncture, I will turn to the students' initialresponse to the installation of metal detectors in their school.Dramatic in its significance, this event also helped to set the stagefor other kinds of responses to surveillance. Protest: The Walkout The walkout, reported widely on local and national news, clearlyrepresents a breakdown in school policy and student compliance and isthe place from which to begin thinking about how urban teenagers arecontending with and also responding to school surveillance policy. Thewalkout is an exceptional example of a student-driven collective call toaction that serves as a telling reminder that "youth as collectivecommunity actors" are indeed "capable of responding tocoercive policies" (Ginwright et al., 2005, pp. 32-33). The walkout occurred in a complex context. Unlike many neighboringschools, the Bronx high school (at which both my research and thewalkout took place) and its administration had resisted the installationof metal detectors. Students and teachers suggest that the principalforestalled these changes for as long as she could before acquiescing tothe demands of the DOE in Fall 2005. Although some whispers of impending im��pend?intr.v. im��pend��ed, im��pend��ing, im��pends1. To be about to occur: Her retirement is impending.2. metal detectors had circulated the previous spring, little if any formalwarning was given to students until they were gathered in an auditoriumat the beginning of the new school year. There, students learned thatdue to increased violence (an incident that happened outside the school,near the subway in which a student from another high school was killedby someone who did not attend the high school in question), (9) metaldetectors would be installed. This would mean that a number of itemsincluding cell phones and MP3 devices would be confiscated upon entranceand that students would lose their open campus lunch privileges. Withindays, a student-organized walkout was mounted. Spontaneously conceived of and organized by a small group offrustrated students on a youth website (Sconex.com) and unofficiallysupported by one local community based organization, (10) the walkout of1,500 Bronx high school students was fueled by anger and disbelief attheir school's apparently draconian measures to curb violence atthe start of their school year. The root of student hostility stemmedfrom newfound surveillance measures: the installment of metal detectors,an increase of NYPD and School Safety Agents (SSA) on school premises,and a 'captive lunchroom' program which prohibited studentsfrom leaving campus for lunch. In the course of my research, I spokewith several of the students who left the building and marched threemiles under police escort and called a meeting with their region'ssuperintendent and other Department of Education officials demandingthat "metal detectors and security cameras be removed, that they beallowed to have lunch outside the school, and that an earlier ban oncell phones be lifted" (Santos, 2005). I also spoke with studentswho decided to remain inside the building for fear of getting in troublewith parents and teachers. Inside the walls of the school, afterconducting interviews with students and teachers, the walkout'ssymbolic resonance, not its outcomes (or lack of outcomes) stood out asmost significant. In an extensive historical and cultural study, Domination and theArts of Resistance, James C. Scott James C. Scott (born 2 Dec 1936) is Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University. Before being promoted to Sterling Professor, he was the Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Anthropology. He is also the director of the Program in Agrarian Studies. (1990) examines the fluctuations ofcultural and political domination and resistance by studying how powerrelationships are inscribed and challenged through social transcripts.He labels as "public" transcripts those used by those in powerto support the established social order. "Hidden" transcriptsare discursive critiques, offstage rituals, and resistant activitiestaken by those in positions of subordination. Scott analyzes seemingpatterns of compliance and submission that emerge when surveillance isovert. Resistance, for Scott, originates "not simply from materialappropriation but from the pattern of personal humiliations thatcharacterize that exploitation" (p. 112). Scott argues that "the greater the power exercised over[subordinate populations] and the closer the surveillance, the moreincentive subordinates have to foster the impression of compliance,agreement, and deference" (p. 89). When students protested theimplementation of metal detectors at the entrance of their school,however, they were anything but compliant. Or so it initially seemed.Perhaps this was because the decision to install metal detectors had notbeen explained to staff or students. "There was no rationale behindthe plan," said one of the school's English teachers English Teachers (airing internationally as Taipei Diaries) is a Canadian documentary television series. The series, which airs on Canada's Life Network and internationally, profiles several young Canadians teaching English as a Second Language in Taipei, Taiwan. . Instead,the plan-from-above appeared hasty, without warrant, and ad hoc For this purpose. Meaning "to this" in Latin, it refers to dealing with special situations as they occur rather than functions that are repeated on a regular basis. See ad hoc query and ad hoc mode. . Infact, in most accounts by staff and students, the surveillance strategyat the high school was ill-planned from the start, and exposed holes inthe Department of Education's security policies. And althoughschool security attempted to prevent students from leaving the buildingbefore 3rd period on the day of the walkout, they were outnumbered. The student-organized walkout agitated ag��i��tate?v. ag��i��tat��ed, ag��i��tat��ing, ag��i��tatesv.tr.1. To cause to move with violence or sudden force.2. policymakers and schoolofficials (warranting phone calls home to the parents of every studentwho walked out) and made the headlines in the local and national news.While it did not remove the metal detectors (it actually increasedthem), students like Esteban suggest that the walkout's greatestachievement was that it "did create awareness." Though theywere disappointed that the protest didn't achieve its aim and thatit was not followed up by another protest, (11) student upon studentagreed that the walkout "showed to a lot of officials that youth dohave a voice." Fernando Carlo, an organizer from Sistas and BrothasUnited believes that the protest forced adults to take youth moreseriously. He explains, Now all these people see that students understand what's going on; they understand that they [students] do feel uncomfortable--they realize the metal detectors don't help and they create all these other problems and the students know and I think the number one excuse for why students aren't involved in this kind of decision-making is because 'oh, students don't know.' Well, the students are smart enough to realize the metal detectors aren't helping; they're smart enough to get all these other students together and walk off to the region office and get a meeting, so I definitely think it [the walkout] made people jump up on their toes and realize that students know. And finally, according to one student, the walkout reminded bothstudents and teachers that students have the right to peacefullyassemble "against things that we dislike, so we took that intoconsideration," Rafael reminds us. In sum, the walkout was noteworthy and dramatic because itevidenced a clear breakdown in the system that those at all levels ofauthority inside the Department of Education could not ignore. It was,in Ashforth and Mael's framework, an oppositional form ofresistance; an obvious challenge to authority. On their own, studentorganizers built a protest which included 1,500 of their peers--all ofthem responding, ostensibly, to what they perceived as injustice anddisrespect. In this sense, the protest was collective. Every student Ispoke with testified to detesting what the metal detectors and securityofficers represented in their school: that they and their peers were allpotential criminals. Although it was collective, the protest was notnecessarily unified. In discussions with students following the walkout,many of them spoke of the fact that a lot of kids walked out for the funof it; that they were not really invested in getting rid of the metaldetectors and were unwilling to stay with the struggle. To the student organizers, the ones most likely to do the work ofmounting a follow-up protest, this irked. Their perceptions of theirfellow peers' motives (or lack of them) no doubt influenced theirdecision not to continue the struggle to overturn the surveillance andsecurity measures in their school. The distinction between collectiveand/or unified resistance is an important one given the current contextof school-wide surveillance. Although collective resistance may be whatfoments a campaign to overturn one condition or another inside a school(the presence of 1,500 youth on the streets is enough to generate a lotof noise), it is difficult to sustain collective campaigns in part, Iargue, because the conditions of surveillance produce distrust,especially among subordinate players. And finally, the walkout was alsoconspicuous, which meant that school officials and policymakers couldanticipate, study, and potentially defeat the plans for a follow-upprotest. When Sistas and Brothas United attempted to organize a three-schoolprotest at the old Armory building on Kingsbridge in the Bronx, theycould not attain a permit from the City. Organizer Carlo suggested thatafter the September walkout, DOE officials were doing everything intheir power to prevent grassroots organizers from mounting otherprotests against metal detectors. This left organizers to pursue other,less directly oppositional avenues of resistance. The protest evidenced a desire among students to respond to theunfair changes they were encountering in their school. But it was notuntil I interviewed the students themselves--some of whom helpedorganize the walkout, others who actively participated in it, and stillothers who stayed in class for fear of being penalized--that two otherimportant and surprising responses began to emerge. These responses inprogressive order are tactical avoidance and emergent participation.These lesser known and less obvious attempts by students to respondtactically to school practices of surveillance may yield deeper and morepromising implications for understanding the consequences ofschool-based surveillance. Tactical Avoidance Of the many reasons students willingly risked being penalized forresisting the installation of metal detectors and security in theirschool, certainly the most compelling to emerge in my conversations withyouth is the fact of how scary it is to enter school each day under thegaze of suspicion. New York City teenagers do not typically trust"the cops." And as far as they could tell, cops were now intheir school. While they may have grown accustomed to this kind oftreatment in stores or on street corners, navigating school with thesame kind of guardedness was something students resisted from theoutset. Across interviews and focus groups, the students I spoke withfrequently associated security inside the school building withinteractions with law enforcement on subways, in malls, and on theirblocks. The conflation (database) conflation - Combining or blending of two or more versions of a text; confusion or mixing up. Conflation algorithms are used in databases. is significant, for it makes clear the failure ofurban schools to differentiate themselves from the culture of thestreets and surrounding neighborhoods. David, 17, said of how he approaches a store, "if they'relooking suspicious at me, I just avoid it altogether. I just don'tgo in." In many regards, students are approaching the doorways ofschool with the same tactical response. Although NYC's Departmentof Education insists that the presence of school security officers makesschool safer, without fail, and in part due to their proximity to allforms of police harassment and profiling in neighborhoods, on subways,in stores, and elsewhere, urban youth equate the presence of securityofficials with harassment. Comparing his experience of passing throughmetal detectors at school with how he enters a store, one student toldof how he makes sure to lift his baseball cap, make eye contact withsecurity so as to assure them that he is there only to shop. Suspicion,in other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke"put differently , is a condition that follows urban youth; school is noexception. The tragedies of Columbine columbine, in botanycolumbine(kŏl`əmbīn), any plant of the genus Aquilegia, temperate-zone perennials of the family Ranunculaceae (buttercup family), popular both as wildflowers and as garden flowers. and September 11th have forced publicschools to step up surveillance practices--producing an environment withless freedom and more control. "What the 'War on Terror'and its associative social control measures illustrates is thewillingness on the part of those charged with securing the nation toresort to any means necessary in accomplishing that task. The goal issecurity; the reality is one of control" (Lindsay, 2004, 323).Students insist that the combination of personnel (several layers ofsecurity officials) and technology (scanners and metal detectors) at theentrance, exits, and in the hallways are what makes school an oftenhumiliating hu��mil��i��ate?tr.v. hu��mil��i��at��ed, hu��mil��i��at��ing, hu��mil��i��atesTo lower the pride, dignity, or self-respect of. See Synonyms at degrade. experience. Months after the walkout, in the course of myinterviews, the rage students expressed as participants in the walkouthad for some slipped quietly into acquiescence Conduct recognizing the existence of a transaction and intended to permit the transaction to be carried into effect; a tacit agreement; consent inferred from silence. . Junior students lamentedthe fact that they had such high hopes for their senior year; now allthey cared about was "getting out of here." Senior students stated that they acquiesced to the harassment ofsecurity guards for fear that any reprisal reprisal,in international law, the forcible taking, in time of peace, by one country of the property or territory belonging to another country or to the citizens of the other country, to be held as a pledge or as redress in order to satisfy a claim. would jeopardize theirgraduating on time. Everyone I spoke with had stories of securityofficials humiliating students--disturbing tales of female studentsforced to leave school because their bra wires had set off the metaldetector; experiences of being scanned for up to five minutes whilesecurity guards gossiped with each other while the student was made lateto first period; being apprehended for going to the bathroom without abathroom pass while the student ahead of them, committing the sameinfraction, was let go because he was a "buddy" of thesecurity guard. Upon recalling an incident that had happened many monthsearlier, soon after the metal detectors were installed, Jessica'seyes start to well up, her voice cracked as she recounted a time whenshe forgot to remove her belt before entering school: I was embarrassed one time. That really got me mad. I forgot to take off my belt, I was more worried about being late for this class or my mind is somewhere else ... And I beeped or whatever, and this cop is like 'oh, hey, everybody, look at this stupid kid, you know, dumb enough to have her belt on. Everyone laugh at her' kinda thing. You know, he just totally screwed up my day. I even started crying. I was so embarrassed ... So it was kind of like trying to make everyone feel like crap so you won't even dare talk back. These stories form the backdrop upon which students activelyrespond to the surveillance they face daily in their schools; they alsohighlight the complex nature of responding to what amounts to a doublesurveillance. As Jessica's story makes clear, security accomplishestwo things at once: it enforces the schools rules (safety), and itembarrasses her to the point of silence in front of her peers (control).In many ways this incident captures the essence of the double-bind atwork for students who are determined to graduate high school and willingto compromise or "conform" to the humiliating conditions theyface in order to do so. Given these pressures and humiliations, students I interviewed andobserved soon developed a range of responses to surveillance by theirpeers and security. I call this tactical avoidance. Avoidance involvesattempts at evading surveillance without eschewing the institution andits communities altogether. Given that there may be no way of escapingsurveillance, tactical avoidance highlights an ability to cope withdifficult conditions from two sources of power. It is in this sense thatavoidance serves as a tactic. In his book The Practice of Everyday Life,Michel de Certeau Michel de Certeau (Chamb��ry, 1925- Paris, 9 January 1986) was a French Jesuit and scholar whose work combined psychoanalysis, philosophy, and the social sciences.Michel de Certeau was born in 1925 in Chamb��ry, France. Certeau's education was eclectic. (1984) defines tactics as acts which "insinuate in��sin��u��ate?v. in��sin��u��at��ed, in��sin��u��at��ing, in��sin��u��atesv.tr.1. To introduce or otherwise convey (a thought, for example) gradually and insidiously. See Synonyms at suggest.2. [themselves] into the other's place, fragmentarily, without takingit over in its entirety, without being able to keep it at adistance" (p. xix). He reminds us that a tactic is "actioncharacteristic of users whose status as the dominated element of asociety is concealed. Furthermore, tactics "manipulate ... eventsin order to turn them into 'opportunities'"; they involveclever tricks and an intelligence for "knowing how to get away withthings" (p. xix). De Certeau's thinking offers an opportunityto assess the following discussion that took place in a focus group ofthirteen students who participated in my research after school. Jen: So a lot of you can identify an undercover cop, but thatdoesn't really get you out of being pulled over ... Rafa: You know when to avoid it though. Because if there's anundercover cop there, you're not going to do something. Lolo: Especially if you know the areas they walk around, be like,Oh I don't want to go down there cuz I don't feel like beingharassed today. Go around, take the longer way. Don't worry aboutit. Jen: Does it matter that you even have to be thinking about thisstuff? Lolo: If it's going to avoid harassment it don't matter. This conversation seemed to reveal students' desire to'manipulate events' in order to avoid interactions withauthority at all costs. Taken from a different interview with David, another expression oftactical avoidance in response to school security reads: "insteadof taking the short way, I take the long way just so I can avoidsecurity guards. I do that a lot. Let's say I'm walking withmy friends in the hallways and we see security. Just so we can avoidtheir harassment, we'll go another way." This student'sresponse resonates with some of the critical literature on resistance.For instance, although James Scott James Scott is the name of several people: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth (1649–1685), noble recognized by some as James II of England. James Scott (MP) (1671–1732), Scots MP James Scott (musician) (1885–1938), African-American ragtime composer. maintains that conformity is tacticaland manipulative and thus "an art form in which one can take somepride at having successfully misrepresented oneself " (p. 33),Scott cautions that "evasion ... is purchased at the considerablecost of contributing to the production of a public transcript thatapparently ratifies the social ideology of the dominant" (p. 33).Consider a final example from Jason, one which should remind us of theterms of the public transcript embedded within these interactions: I know the guy doesn't like me, I know there's going to be watching me. period. I go to a place that I don't know, first thing when I walk in, is I look at the dude, I try to establish a sense that I'm just here to buy stuff. If I see him, I'm like "good morning" or "how are you" or, you know, not walk in with my hat low or nothing like that, just a sense of trust that I'm just here to get the stuff and wanna go home, no problems. Certainly these instances of tactical avoidance evidence acompromise, the dark side of which is well expressed by legal scholarPatricia Williams (1992) who reflects upon "the cold game ofequality staring" and her invisibility as a Black woman: "I could force my presence, the real me contained in thoseeyes, upon them, but I would be smashed in the process. If I deflect, ifI move out of the way, they will never know I existed" (p. 222). As formative spaces, then, schools seem to be teaching middle-rangestudents how to navigate the wider terrain of citywide surveillance.Surveillance policies are subjecting urban youth to a stunning lack ofprivacy, conditioning them to being watched at all times and from everyangle, and offering students with disciplinary and academic problemsmostly punitive options. Unknowingly, schools are preparing students toparticipate in and appropriate the signs and symbols of everydaysurveillance in and beyond schools; in turn, students are building arepertoire of tactical responses to these conditions. Although tacticalavoidance, as one response to these conditions, appears limited in itsability to confront the issues these students face inside their schools,it is as surprising and significant a response to surveillance as thewalkout and should not be overlooked as a form of resistance. (12) Forif as Scott insists that while "appearances that power requiresare, to be sure, imposed forcefully on subordinate groups ..., they donot preclude their active use as a means of resistance and evasion"(p. 32). Embedded within these students' responses is their astuteawareness of the reality of control they experience inside theirschools. This awareness, however, is also what sets the stage for andenables these same students to envision ways to exercise their freedomsin equally surprising, and potentially far-reaching ways. Taken Together: Walkout and Tactical Avoidance So far this article has examined the significance of both thecollectively assembled walkout and the more individually orientedtactical avoidance as two strikingly different types of studentresponses to a landscape of increasing surveillance in urban schools.While the walkout had the appearance of being collectively organized andassembled, students attest to it being almost spontaneous, with several"popular" students helping to garner support for it on theSconex.com website and in the cafeteria lunchroom days prior. Many ofthe students I spoke with had no idea, either on the day of the walkoutor months later, who was responsible for organizing the protest. Itsmomentum seems to have arisen on the day of the event, which was largelyunplanned (students report running back to their homes to grab markersand paper to make posters) and unorganized. A few students assembled outfront of school and stood away from the long lines In communications, circuits that are capable of handling transmissions over long distances. forming down theblock awaiting entrance through the metal detectors. Many of those whodecided to stand with the organizers, either jumped off the line or leftthe building after first, second, and third periods--pushing throughsecurity. From the perspective of Jessica, who was one of the organizers andis a member of Sistas and Brothas United, the walkout was made up of"mostly juniors and seniors [who] were just pissed off,"adding that "no one group was responsible for it." Itsmomentum seems to have been the result of mounting frustration amongstudents and the contributions of a few individuals--who were leadingthe charge by posting on Sconex.com or gathering signatures forpetitions. While 1,500 students marched with a rare sense of unity, thewalkout suffered not from a lack of collective purpose, but from a lackof a sense of unity. As I would come to learn throughout myconversations with other middle-range students, the pressure of being"college-bound" often prevented them from aligning with thekind of students willing to take risks and start up a protest. AsJessica, 17, clearly states: Let's say me and my friends ... everyone's worried about passing their classes, getting 90 or above averages, going to prestigious colleges .. They're worried about that so school is a really big part of getting that. The other way, Jose's friends aren't those types of people. They're more daring. 'Hey, let's go watch a movie and cut class and do whatever.' They'll be up for it. Or let's do something together. They'll be up for it. They have that more 'let's do things together' where[as] my friends have 'I need to do things for myself right now.' Underscoring Jessica's statement are the ways in whichschools, and their methods of tracking, rewarding, and penalizingstudents, often prevents students from acting in unison, mobilizing inresponse to, or taking action against perceived injustices. Add to thisa level of extreme surveillance that far surpasses what those of us notattending large urban high schools contend with and we begin torecognize a context that disables unified resistance. Caught betweenwanting a safe classroom environment and lacking a platform to expresstheir outrage and frustration, students find ways to avoid and evadesurveillance. Tactical avoidance, in this sense, represents one point on aspectrum of possible responses to surveillance. Students'experiences of constantly being under the gaze of security guards armedwith the metal detectors, scanning machines, and the authority tohumiliate and penalize them for any infraction, and their insights aboutbeing exposed to an environment which portends to be safer yet allowsfor newer and more sophisticated ways for fellow students to bring incontraband items all go to show how intimately urban youth understandthe paradox of school "safety" measures which, in an effort toprotect students, actively criminalizes them. The outcome is a schoolenvironment of suspicion and distrust--one which is not conducive tosustained safety or collective resistance. Because they experience surveillance as 'eyes on meregardless,' escaping it, even trying to confront it directly, areparticularly limited and limiting types of responses. Within Ashforthand Mael's framework, tactical avoidance may best be characterizedas diffuse--not targeted at the threat--and unauthorized. In her articleon the formations of African-American resistance to school, Regina DayLanghout (2005) suggests that targeting a specific threat or act ofinjustice depends often on how much power the resistor has, and thatbecause "children in school settings do not have a great deal ofpower, it is important to look for diffuse acts of resistance" (p.125). Tactical avoidance evidences an awareness of one's lack ofpower in a given setting. Students are capable of intuiting what formtheir resistance might need to take (and what its target might be) in agiven setting. Equally contributive is the fact that students participate in theirown surveillance. Schools are sites of dual, if not multiple,surveillance as Jessica's story at the metal detectors attests.Thus, targeting a specific threat is not so easily done. Tacticalavoidance suggests that resistance to being heavily watched means notresisting any one thing at all; it means not locating a target, so muchas learning to be performative per��for��ma��tive?adj.Relating to or being an utterance that peforms an act or creates a state of affairs by the fact of its being uttered under appropriate or conventional circumstances, as a justice of the peace uttering , chameleonic, and savvy. In this sense,it relies on the quickness of an individual response; not a collectiveone. Because the threat of being singled out by authority for doingsomething wrong is so real, tactical avoidance represents a form ofindividualized, often isolated resistance: a 'to each his own'kind of attitude. This evokes the sense that one can evade authoritybest when one remains alone and under the radar This article is about the magazine. For other uses, see Under the Radar (disambiguation). Under the Radar is an American magazine that bills itself as "The solution to music pollution." It features interviews with accompanying photo-shoots. . But it also signalsthat diffuse resistance can happen in small, unified groups as in theexample in which David and a small group of friends simply "takeanother route" to avoid trouble with security without evenverbalizing it to each other. For schools that value smaller learning communities, studentparticipation is essential. If tactical avoidance suggests somethingabout how students resist macro conditions in which they feel targeted,demeaned, and disrespected, it may also go towards illuminating themeaning of their resistance to the more micro dynamics inside aclassroom. At issue is how students participate in theireducation--which forms of participation offer young people opportunitiesto exercise independence while contesting and challenging authority.Emergent participation offers us a way to think about student responsesto surveillance that is potentially more sustainable than other types ofresponses. The Hip Hop Poetry Club and Emergent Participation As students began to recognize the gradual and seeminglyirreversible effects of the metal detectors on their schoolenvironment--"it's a very unhappy place and not what you wouldcall a learning place at all"--they began to envision new ways to"get their voices heard," Elizabeth attests. When faced withdominant opposition, Scott claims that subordinate groups perform"feats of imagination" in which they imagine a "totalreversal of the distribution of status and rewards" (p. 80). Onesuch imaginative response and, I argue, the most enduring, wasspearheaded by a group of young writers who were frustrated with thelack of student unity and voice at school. Soon after the walkout inSeptember, Elizabeth, a student who is also a member of an after-schoolspoken word organization (Urban Word NYC) and a writing organization forgirls (Girls Write Now), both located in downtown Manhattan, started totalk up the idea of a poetry club to her friends. By January, when Ifirst went up to the high school to observe the club, roughly fifteenstudents sat in desks formed in a circle, took part in short writingexercises (led by other youth), and read aloud their free-writing orpoems they crafted around an assignedtheme. David explains its creation: [Elizabeth] wanted to start a poetry club because there's a lack of writing clubs in the school and she started the whole thing. Basically what she did--she went around and started recruiting kids. There weren't no flyers around the school for poetry club; she wandered around the school. I remember she told me about it cause it was like the first day of English class and we had to write an introductory paragraph, introducing ourselves, and in it I said I like to write poetry, so [later] she was like oh, join the poetry club. I was like okay. She just went around recruiting people, that's what she did. One factor in the club's success were these guerrillarecruitment tactics--hybrid acts that remain out of the line of sight ofauthority but which remain participatory in effect. Similar to the ways hip hop culture Hip hop is a subculture, which is said to have begun with the work of DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, and Afrika Bambaattaa.The four main aspects, or "elements", of hip hop culture are MCing (rapping), DJing, urban inspired art/tagging (graffiti), and has mobilized urban teenagerssince the late 1970s and functioned as a site of resistance (Queeley,2003; Rose, 1994; Kelley, 1998), youth writing and spoken word can serveas both a site of resistance and a response to surveillance. Thecreation of an after-school hip hop poetry club (an emergent communityof writers and performers) is only one example of what might constitutesustainable resistance to the conditions this article addresses; but itis a particularly noteworthy one because it also generates thepossibility of student freedom and intellectual advancement among otheradvantages. Jennifer McCormick (2004), whose study of girl poets who use poetryto cope with and transcend their daily struggles inside and beyond NYCschools, argues that while poetry is limited in its ability to remedy"the structural failures that have plagued New York City'spublic school system," it provides a space--an internalasylum--"for lament, fantasy, and elation elation/ela��tion/ (e-la��shun) emotional excitement marked by acceleration of mental and bodily activity, with extreme joy and an overly optimistic attitude. " (p. 7). The studentwriters, who founded the club which became known as Spoken Ink and whomI came to know over the course of my research, not only used poetry tocomment on and speak back to the conditions in their school, but alsotransformed for a couple of hours each week a threatening space into onein which school-wide surveillance became least conspicuous. James Scottcontends that social spaces such as these "are themselves anachievement of resistance; they are won and defended in the teeth ofpower" (p. 119). Much of the writing in the first few months of this after-schoolclub specifically referenced the conditions in school. Although studentsattested to "getting used to" the disciplinary effects of theschool's surveillance measures, their writing expresses the rageand disappointment they often feel but cannot express openly to those inauthority. Writing offers them a space (within the space of the clubitself) to rhetorically question, vent, and talk back, as a selectionfrom Rhina's poem reflects: We don't need no metal detectors to keep out the knives Take out you stapler and all of your pens I'll stab and staple a trick and get ten day detention Juicy juice in the school Great no soda Keep the sugar level low and keep students from rising up Against staff they didn't like and stuff they be hating I got a walkie-talkie at home Am I in for a good stabbing? That's all the school aids are; students with big ass phones They dress and act like us and start trouble wherever they go There's no way to know who our oppressors are They're like undercover agents with ghetto ass accents Neither the walkout nor tactical avoidance brought about theremoval of metal detectors, however, both helped generate the need anddesire for ways in which students could safely voice their frustrationsand concerns. In their conceptualization con��cep��tu��al��ize?v. con��cep��tu��al��ized, con��cep��tu��al��iz��ing, con��cep��tu��al��iz��esv.tr.To form a concept or concepts of, and especially to interpret in a conceptual way: of learning as situated andsocially constituted, Jean Lave Jean Lave (PhD., Social Anthropology, Harvard University, 1968) is a social anthropologist and noted social learning theorist. She is currently a Professor of Education and Geography at the University of California, Berkeley. and Etienne Wenger Etienne Wenger (1952-) is an educational theorist and practitioner, best known for his formulation (with Jean Lave) of the theory of situated cognition and his more recent work in the field of communities of practice. (1991) argue thatparticipation in social practice is crucial to knowing. They offer theconcept of "legitimate peripheral participation Legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) is a theoretical description of how newcomers become experienced members and eventually old timers of a community of practice or collaborative project. " as aconceptual bridge between the "production of knowledgeableidentities and the production of communities of practice" (p. 55).While students' tended to experience the walkout as members of agroup, somewhat eclipsing their individualized roles as agents/actors(which helps explain why students didn't organize another walkoutand also why they were so critical of it), their participation in SpokenInk is both as an individual and as a member of a group. Certainly theways in which students contend with school surveillance offer myriadlearning opportunities, however Lave and Wenger call us to "thinkof sustained learning as embodying, albeit in transformed ways, thestructural characteristics of communities of practice" (p. 55). In this sense, the walkout made the club possible because itexposed the value of participation and the potential for growth andlearning. Although tactical avoidance is expressed as an isolatedexperience and an individualized response, it is also a response thatparticipates in a common struggle. Spoken Ink, by way of contrast, is aresponse to surveillance that has ably transformed a site of containmentinto one in which students and their thoughts are actively sealed offnot from the effects of surveillance (as the poetry certainly goes toshow), but from the guards themselves. Little by little, as the months wore on, the club became the safestand most productive place for learning at any hour of the day. As theyprogressed, the poets caught the eye of other English teachers who, inturn, invited members to come in to their classes and perform poems andraps for younger students. Elizabeth attests that talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to"lecture, speechrebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to freshmenabout school or about any of their concerns is one of the most powerfulaspects of being a member of the club: We went to visit two freshman classes and I can honestly say that that was one of the best things we could do. I read this poem called 'Air Jordans' [from Aloud! Anthology of Nuyorican Poets] and the poem was about how this student [dealt with] peer pressure ... and he killed somebody for his sneakers cuz he didn't have the money. And although we don't see that as much now, I still read that poem because it still has value to it. And then David read his poem 'Changes' about how we need to get together, go to school, this and that. Lloyd talked about his relationship with his mother and how it isn't good but that he still has respect for women. And we just talked to them. We told them, 'we're your age, we're no different than you, but we see things and hopefully as freshmen you guys can see what's going on around you.' And Ayesha, she was amazing. She read a poem about a 17-year-old girl who gets pregnant from a 35 year old. And they were laughing. And I asked them, 'Why are you laughing? We have a Life Center on the 3rd Floor.' I asked them, 'How many of you know a teenager who's pregnant?' Only two people didn't raise their hand. Everybody else raised their hand. And I'm like, 'So why are you laughing?' That hit them hard and they were like, 'oh shit.' So, I feel like that's probably going to be one of my highlights leaving high school ... Our poetry was the back-up. The best thing was us talking to them. As Elizabeth's statement attests, the hip hop poetry club is acommunity of practice that is engaged in the "generative process ofproducing its own future" (Lave & Wenger, pp. 57-58). Membersare not simply concerned with displaying their talents for writing andpoetry, but also want to communicate with and pass along knowledge (thehidden transcript) to their younger classmates. One of the club'sstrongest initiatives was to "recruit younger students." Theseefforts at communicating with classmates are not sanctioned by theinstitution, and yet they are vital to establishing autonomous spaceswhere students can exist and breathe within the surveilled environmentof school. That Spoken Ink was created by students for students is areminder that spaces such as these are not gifted, and do not merelyoccupy the "social space left empty by domination" (Scott, p.123). Though they can be supported and facilitated by authority figuressuch as teachers and counselors, clubs of this kind must be "won,cleared, built, and defended" by those who need them most (p. 123).My research findings suggest that conditions in these schools are direenough to warrant fighting for spaces of this kind, and that studentsare capable of creating and sustaining them on their own with minimal(but some) support from an encouraging teacher or advisor. Within Ashforth and Mael's framework, emergent participationtroubles the dichotomous di��chot��o��mous?adj.1. Divided or dividing into two parts or classifications.2. Characterized by dichotomy.di��chot framing of resistance. It represents ahybridization hybridization/hy��brid��iza��tion/ (hi?brid-i-za��shun)1. crossbreeding; the act or process of producing hybrids.2. molecular hybridization3. of the distinguishing features of resistance. It isneither authorized nor unauthorized; neither facilitative noroppositional. It is both. Writing, in the context of Spoken Ink, andunder the gaze of suspicion, comes to represent both an individuated andcollective form of resistance. While it is truer everyday that schoolsrepresent sites "marbled with liberatory possibilities andpredatory surveillance" (Ruck et al., p. 2), what we learn bylooking at the multiple ways in which these students responded to theirschool's decision to install metal detectors is that they are oftenseeking ways to participate within this marbled landscape. And that assuch, participation in school, and in their own learning--whether it beshowing up at the door each morning only to be held up at the metaldetectors or staying late after school to write rhymes with peers--mustbe considered as existing on an open-ended continuum of resistance. Conclusion Given the likelihood that the country's public schools willcontinue to adopt policies of containment replete with surveillancetechnologies and policing mechanisms, it will be important forresearchers and educators to look closely at the ways students respondto these policies. Although it remains imperative that youth advocates,community-based organizers, and academics continue to respondaggressively to punitive public policies that target urban youth ofcolor, my research suggests that it will be of increasing importance tolook closely at the multiple ways students are navigating surveillanceinside schools. I am hopeful that we will find ways to support theirefforts--even when these efforts remain unsanctioned by the institutionitself. Under the watchful eyes of authority, perhaps that is how theyshould remain. References Aronowitz, S., & Giroux, H. (1985) Education under siege: Theconservative, liberal, and radical debate over schooling. 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Notes (1) There are several layers of security--New York Police Officers(NYPD), School Safety Agents (SSA), Security Guards, Deans/hallwaymonitors. The SSA are those who monitor the metal detectors/scanners andthe ones students come most in contact with (other than the Deans). Theyare the lowest ranked officers of the NYPD. They are, in onestudents' words, "the Riker's-hiredofficers--they're crazy--they think that we're the criminals.And that's how we're treated." (2) Their perceptions that heightened surveillance breeds excessivesuspicion on the part of authority echo the sentiments of over 900 youthsurveyed in Michelle Fine et al's participatory action research Action Research or Participatory action research has emerged in recent years as a significant methodology for intervention, development and change within communities and groups. It is now promoted and implemented by many international development agencies and university programs CCAR, as with youth entitled, "'Anything Can Happen with PoliceAround': Urban Youth Evaluate Strategies of Surveillance in PublicPlaces" (Fine, Freudenberg, Payne, Perkins, Smith, and Wanzer,2003). (3) The quote is how one male participant characterized hisrelationship to surveillance. (4) The New York City Public School system enrolls approximately1.1 million students in over 1,400 schools (U.S. Department ofEducation, 2003-4). (5) One example of this are the hallway "sweeps" betweenclasses where students caught outside of class after the bell rings areliterally "swept" away into detention--three of which invokesuspension. (6) As reported in the Gotham Gazette The Gotham Gazette is a publication of the Citizens Union Foundation of the City of New York, a governance watchdog group focusing on issues confronting New York City. , "New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of the City of New York. It comprises 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The Council serves as balance of power against the mayor in a "strong" mayor-council government model. STATED MEETING - November 10, 2004-10 Nov 2004".http://www.gothamgazette.com/article//20041110/203/1253. "Of the1,300 schools in New York City, only 155 currently have securitycameras. The council also allocated $120 million in the 5-year capitalbudget for new security cameras, which cost approximately $75,000 perschool to install." (7) Urban Word NYC is an after-school poetry, spoken word, and hiphop organization that provides New York City teenagers free after-schoolworkshops, all-youth open mic spaces, and an annual teen poetry slam. Itwas founded in 1999. (8) Like so many youth I have encountered at this high school,these students work hard, do their best to attend class, and continue tobelieve in the possibility of education. My decision to work with"middle-range" students stems from a desire to capture theways that surveillance practices in schools affect not only the mostvulnerable students (i.e., those who skip class, wander the hallways,bring in contraband items--those who tend to acquire the moniker (1) A name, title or alias. See alias.(2) A COM object that is used to create instances of other objects. Monikers save programmers time when coding various types of COM-based functions such as linking one document to another (OLE). See COM and OLE. of"trouble" students), but also how these same practices impactstudents who are "doing right" by the system. Based on my workand research in urban settings, I have come to believe middle-rangestudents offer important and diverse lessons for research and agendasfor change--especially their responses to the circumstances that theyface in school. Given the growing climate of fear and suspicionsurrounding public education and its students in urban settings,middle-range students offer urban educators and researchers deeperinsight into the possibilities for creating and sustaining change. (9) Metro Briefing | "New York: Bronx: 3 Arrested In SubwayKilling" (NY Times, Thomas J. Lueck, compiled by Anthony Ramirez,April 14, 2005): "Three people have been charged in the killing ofMarviel Martinez, 17, of the Bronx, who was attacked with a macheteTuesday morning on a subway platform as he waited with two friends for atrain to school, the police said early this morning. The three, allBronx residents, were identified as Alex Ramirez, 15, who was chargedwith murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon; BolivarPichardo, 17, who was charged with murder; and Lucas Denis, 18, who wascharged with murder. The two friends of Mr. Martinez were also stabbedin the attack around 8 a.m. on the uptown No. 4 platform at 183rd Streetand Jerome Avenue, the police said." (10) Sistas and Brothas United is a grassroots, community-basedorganization that works closely with high schools in the surroundingareas. The high school in question is one of its projects. It is alsothe Bronx affiliate of Urban Youth Collective, a downtown-based programdesigned to help urban youth organize and resist unfair school policies.Though SBU SBU St. Bonaventure University (St. Bonaventure, New York)SBU Stony Brook University (State University of New York)SBU Southwest Baptist University (Bolivar, MO)was not responsible for initiating the walkout, it wason-site to insure that students were not harassed by the police. SBUalso supported student organizers of the walkout in an advisory role. (11) Many students expressed disappointment at what the walkoutfailed to achieve: "it could have been so much more and then itwasn't. I know a lot of them feel like they didn't reallyachieve anything. We still have metal detectors or we still have copsharassing us or embarrassing us in the morning." (12) Resistance, within education, is often framed in one of twoways: (1) participating in a collective struggles to be heard with theintention of addressing a set of conditions or constraints, or (2) asoppositional--when an individual acts out without the intention ofchanging conditions (Langhout, 2005, p. 125). I argue for a morecomplicated notion of the concept. Jen Weiss is a Ph.D. candidate in Urban Education at the GraduateCenter of the City University of New York, New York City, New York.