Stefanie Coyle John A. Curr III:

Next year, students as young as 4 or 5 years old who attend public school in Western New York’s Lockport School District could be subject to surveillance from facial recognition technology.

News reports indicate the district plans to have the invasive and error-prone technology installed by next school year. Last week, the New York Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to the New York State Education Department urging it to consider students’ and teachers’ privacy in reviewing the use of surveillance technology by school districts. We also sent a freedom of information request to the district seeking details of how and where the technology will be used as well as who will have access to the sensitive data that gets collected.

Lockport spent almost $4 million to acquire the facial recognition system, using state money allocated for schools meant to upgrade or improve their infrastructure and technology. Most schools spent the money on things like Wi-Fi, new computers, or 3D printers.

Lockport, however, made the multimillion dollar purchase despite the fact that the district could face a budget shortfall of nearly $1 million. The district has said if it doesn’t receive additional state aid, it plans to cut transportation and sports programs, reduce kindergarten to half days, and close elementary school libraries.