In the wake of school shootings and the more recent threats of terrorism, schools - like many public institutions - have begun installing techno-security equipment ranging from surveillance cameras to microchip tracking systems. Is this equipment necessary and who really benefits from its use? Selling Us the Fortress, the first qualitative study of the relationship between the security industry and schools, analyzes how technologies once reserved primarily for war have become a common fixture in modern schools, including detailing how school personnel are "sold" on the idea that the mass installation of techno-security is in their best interest.
Introduction: Getting Down to Business of Being Safe
1. The Security
Industry and the Public School Market
2. Selling Social Betterment for Ones
Own Private Utopia
3. The Safest Society Technology Can Create and Money Can
Buy
4. The Promises of Techno-Security Fortification
5. Horror Stories that
Sell
6. Security, the Law, and Federal Policy
7. Transactions on the Open
Market Conclusion. The Big Business of Big Brother. Appendix: Overview of
Research Notes. References. Glossary and List of Organizations. Index
Ronnie Casella is Associate Professor of Educational Foundations and Secondary Education at Central Connecticut State University.