NATIONAL campaigners have reacted angrily after it emerged thousands of York children were being filmed at school without parents being told.

Phil Booth, national co-ordinator of the No2ID group, accused schools of a “massive over-reaction” to discipline issues in school.

He was speaking after an investigation by The Press, published yesterday, found only four of York’s ten secondaries informed parents before installing CCTV.

One school, Huntington, has more cameras than the council has for the whole city centre, with 113 compared with 75.

Mr Booth said: “It seems to be a massive over-reaction to the problems you can get in schools. I would hope parents and students would be calling for these things to be shut down because they are state-wide surveillance.”

He said the number of cameras in some schools was akin to prison levels, and also said schools ought to inform parents who watched the footage from cameras and when. Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, said: “Our campaign against this growing and disturbing phenomenon has triggered many members of the public who got in touch because they were so upset.”

As reported in The Press yesterday, Terri Dowty, director of Action For The Rights Of Children, called for cameras to be switched off during the school day and turned on only for security when schools were closed.

Head teachers defended the cameras though, saying they had helped combat crime and misbehaviour.