Use of security cameras in schools draws skeptics

Duluth News Tribune | October 20 2004

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ST. PAUL - Several Minnesota school districts, joining a national trend, are adding to their security programs to provide an extra layer of protection for students and staff.

Some administrators say the cameras are a sign of the times, but civil libertarians see a Big Brother element in them.

Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, noted that schools already have hall monitors. "Show me where a camera is going to make you safer, really safer," he said.

Several schools in the Twin Cities unveiled the security systems this fall.

The Mounds View District's two high schools installed digital security cameras at a cost of $260,000. In Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan, voters increased taxes to put $1 million into security cameras at their elementary schools and beef up security at secondary schools.

Installations in Anoka-Hennepin schools, Roseville elementary and middle schools and Woodbury High School were completed in the spring. St. Paul schools are testing a system at Battle Creek Middle School that would allow many staffers, not just one person, to see camera views of their 17 secondary schools.

Woodbury High School principal Linda Plante can access school video cameras from her home.

White Bear Lake Area Schools are searching for $50,000 to match Department of Justice money that could finance a monitoring system.

Administrators differ on the effect of the cameras.

Roseville Area Schools Superintendent John Thein calls them a deterrent. He also said, "It's that kind of day and age."

Will Waterkamp, safety and security administrator for St. Paul schools, said his district has some camera systems, but he agrees the technology has its limits. "Cameras are not security. They are a nice tool and they have applications, but they do not represent security," Waterkamp said.

Every school district has security procedures and crisis action plans. Centennial, for instance, has a keycard entry system. Districts conduct intruder and crisis drills. Trained staff, district IDs and visitor badges are integral to school security.

Technology is only part of the whole comprehensive program, says Ken Trump, president of the nonprofit National School Safety and Security Services in Cleveland.

"You have to make sure nobody is left with the false perception that equipment alone is a panacea," said Trump, who has sold school security assessments and emergency-preparedness training for about a decade.

Cameras are useful for monitoring stairways and out-of-the-way nooks and crannies, Trump said, but people are vital.

John Currie, superintendent for Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan schools, contends that cameras "contribute to safety in our schools." There are privacy concerns, but he notes that school officials in his district keep tapes or digital discs private, sharing them only with law enforcement.

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