Why shouldn't "Lying detectors" be used in schools?

Answer 1

To what purpose?

Why would you need to use a lie detector in school? Besides, they are not foolproof by any means.

Answer 2

There are different types of lie detectors, and although some of them are more reliable than others, they are all unreliable.

Lie detectors rely on physiological responses, either electric potential in the skin, patterns in speech, or other cues. However, these things vary from person to person.

In a class one of my friends was in, they tested a bunch of people with one of the standard lie detectors and although it was reliable most of the time, there were certain people for whom it would often or always register false positives, and other people who could lie without being detected.

In addition, psychopaths, pathological liars, and other disturbed people are often among the people who are "missed" by these tests.

These devices shouldn't be used in schools because they're not reliable enough to be fair--false positives could unfairly punish students and false negatives would mean they often don't catch all the worst cases.

I've included some web sources if you want to read more about the topic.

Answer 3

I don't see what good it would do. Are you proposing that a kid who's late with his homework should be strapped up to a lie detector to find out why? How ridiculous. School should not be run like a police state.

If you treat kids like criminals before they've even done anything much wrong, they'll behave like criminals.

Treat them like human beings, and you'll get human beings out at the end.

Answer 4

Lie dectors are seen as a breach of students privacy. Its a matter of legality. And what would they be used for anyways.

Answer 5

They are so unreliable that their results cannot be used in a court of law.

Or else I have been misinformed. Also, they would bleed-off much of the trust we want to instill in our youths.