SEATTLE - Two Gig Harbor High School girls kissed and held hands.

The school's dean of students saw them and ran to the office to see if video cameras had captured the moment.

He then called one girl's parents and showed them the tape.

He justified it by saying the girl's parents had asked him to alert them if their daughter did anything out of the ordinary.

There are so many things wrong with this I hardly know where to start.

Schools spying on student behavior that's not illegal.

Parents using an arm of government to electronically track their child's every move.

Using public money to set up surveillance of innocent people.

And the misguided notion that it's all worthwhile because someone, somewhere might sometime get caught doing something wrong or illegal.

Shame on the school for doing what it did, and shame on us if we just quietly allow them to get away with it.

I know it might seem like a trite comparison, but the lesson obviously has been lost so I'll make it anyway.

Read George Orwell's "1984."

Read it and take it to heart.

Read it and hope that it's not 23 years too late to understand what he was trying to warn us against.