CAMPUS CRIME STOPPERS CONJURES VISIONS OF BIG BROTHER

"Turn in those who are preventing you from getting a solid education in a
safe environment. Do not let someone interrupt your opportunity for a
successful future."

This Web site tip represents the Campus Crime Stoppers' philosophy recently
adopted by the Portland, David Douglas and Parkrose school districts.

Campus Crime Stoppers, a privately funded, international organization,
offers cash rewards of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrests
(not convictions) of perpetrators. In buying into this program, Oregon is
part of a controversial trend in which monetary incentives are offered to
students for reporting crimes.

Oregon has already been criticized for paying parents of students with
tardiness problems a reward of $3 for every full day of class attendance by
their child, and $1 per half day. Health clinics in some counties pay
high-risk teen-age girls to not get pregnant.

I believe the use of monetary incentives makes a commodity of citizenship
and corrupts our sense of community responsibility. Instead of teaching
students how to think about right and wrong, these programs teach that
everything is for sale. Cash rewards are playing an increasing role in law
enforcement in schools in California, Colorado, Louisiana, North Carolina,
Texas, New Mexico and now Oregon.

Police officer Bobby Rachel of Mesquite, Texas, says, "Of the kids at this
school, 95 percent are good kids, and of the 5 percent that aren't so good,
only 1 percent cause any trouble."

In their efforts to create safe learning environments, are schools instead
instilling paranoia, conflict and distrust? In Charlotte, N.C., tens of
thousands of posters showing piercing eyes and the ominous phrase, "Who's
Watching?" are on display in schools. How close have we come to George
Orwell's Big Brother campaign?

In fact, seventh-graders at a Texas middle school have turned in fellow
students for doodling on desks, and on several occasions, for drug
trafficking after witnessing the exchange of Tic Tac mints.

Campus Crime Stoppers asks students to separate themselves from their
so-called criminal peers. But thus far, a reduction in crime has yet to be
shown. Apparently such programs serve another purpose: to reassure the
public that law enforcement agencies are on top of the situation, that a
"smoke-free class of 2000" is on the horizon.

Increasing "crime fighting" activities, however, fails to get at the true
causes of crime. The real contributors to society's problems are poverty,
racism, alienation and hopelessness.