--- title: "Schools Are Using AI Surveillance to Catch Students Vaping Inside Bathrooms" description: "A Colorado school district is using facial recognition technology to police vaping in bathrooms, according to the Denver Post." date: "2024-10-12" modified: "2024-10-12" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/schools-ai-surveillance" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "facial recognition" - "surveillance" - "the digest" --- # Schools Are Using AI Surveillance to Catch Students Vaping Inside Bathrooms ![A Colorado school district is using facial recognition technology to police vaping in bathrooms, according to the Denver Post.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Gotcha! A Colorado school district is using facial recognition technology to police vaping in bathrooms. As the [*Denver Post* reports](), the Cheyenne Mountain School District in Colorado Springs already boasts a network of 400 AI-powered facial recognition cameras scattered throughout its school buildings. The school district argues they ensure school safety and facilitate responses to emergency situations. Critics, however, argue that spending district money to put kids under sci-fi-esque surveillance comes with a slew of practical and ethical concerns. According to the report, the company behind the facial recognition cameras has also installed smart air sensors, designed to detect whether a kid is vaping or smoking weed. The idea is that if the air sensors detect vape or THC-laden smoke in bathrooms, surveillance cameras can then be used to locate and identify the culprit. "We went down a road of Verkada, even though it's definitely not the cheapest," Greg Miller, executive director of technology for the Cheyenne Mountain district, told the *Post*. He added that Verkanda's tech has been "critical in multiple incidents" — i.e., at-school vaping — "where we can click on a face and know which door that child exited so they can find them and safely make sure they aren't harming themselves." To be fair, kids probably [shouldn't]() [be vaping at all]() given the considerable health risks. But relying on an extensive facial recognition system to monitor and police the behavior of kids at school is a deeply dystopian glimpse into the future of the US education system. ## Principal Big Brother Per the *Post*, Miller — who spoke on a panel during a Verkanda event in Colorado last month — also insisted that the school system takes measures to ensure that there's no constant monitoring of specific students, and maintained that the district's tech spending is all about safety. But while safety should always be top of mind for educators, experts have [consistently]() [warned]() that the perceived safety benefits of deploying facial recognition are still pretty murky. "We don't think that the potential benefits — and there's not a whole lot of data to prove those exist — outweigh the harms not only to privacy," Anaya Robinson, senior policy strategist at the ACLU of Colorado, told the *Post*, "but also the general safety and comfort and ease that students should get to feel in the place they spend the vast majority of their youth." **More on facial recognition:** [*Terrifying Smart Glasses Hack Can Pull Up Personal Info of Nearby Strangers in Seconds*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()