School wants to add 150 more eyes www.privateofficer.com
PORTSMOUTH VA. March 16 2008
Aiming to beef up safety, school leaders want to add more than 150 security cameras in the city’s schools, nearly doubling the number now in place.
The initiative, which would cost about $100,000, is thought to be the first time that surveillance cameras would be placed at Portsmouth elementary schools, said Dan Pendarvis, assistant superintendent of budget and planning.
Next year’s proposed school budget includes the request for the cameras, plus digital video recorders and related equipment. The school board is scheduled to vote on the budget Thursday.
About 200 cameras are used now to monitor activity in the city’s six middle and high schools. None of the division’s 14 elementary schools have them, but under the proposal, four would get exterior cameras: John Tyler,
Brighton, James Hurst and the new Park View, slated to open next school year.
Those primary schools were selected because they are in “high-traffic neighborhoods,” Pendarvis said. “We have lots of people going by the schools.”
The effort grew out of the school board’s retreat last summer, when police and school officials talked about school security issues, including gangs.
The school division was making the transition from VHS recording systems for security to more efficient digital video recorders.
Earlier this school year, a Portsmouth police officer and two school maintenance employees assessed the camera coverage and made recommendations on where to add more, Pendarvis said. The survey was done during regular working hours at no charge to the division.
This week, school board member Jim Hewitt said additional cameras could reduce the number of student discipline cases by deterring crime and bad behavior. Board Chairman James Bridgeford agreed.
“Let’s take a look at areas where we don’t have coverage and get them covered before something does happen,” Bridgeford said.
School officials also agreed that adding cameras could help solve more cases.
“A lot of stuff goes on in schools, and we don’t catch everything,” Bridgeford said.
Kevin Brown, a school administrator who works on security issues, said there have been about 460 student discipline hearings this school year. About 110 of those, he said, were serious enough to come before the board.
Of those cases, 89 resulted in long-term suspensions and 16 in expulsions, he said. In about five of the cases, students were sent to alternative centers. In one case, a student was cleared and allowed back to school, he said.
Brown said student offenses have included more than 100 fights, two sexual assaults that involved groping, three assaults on teachers who were trying to break up fights and a couple of malicious woundings. There also have been about 10 cases each of possessing knives, distributing drugs and trespassing and one case of possession of a BB or pellet gun.
Some of the incidents in the schools have involved “noted gangs,” Brown said.
He estimated that there are 15 to 20 recognized gangs operating in middle and high schools, as well as at the alternative school that houses New Directions and other programs.
Some of the groups are “well-organized with a leadership structure and bylaws,” Brown said
Aiming to beef up safety, school leaders want to add more than 150 security cameras in the city’s schools, nearly doubling the number now in place.
The initiative, which would cost about $100,000, is thought to be the first time that surveillance cameras would be placed at Portsmouth elementary schools, said Dan Pendarvis, assistant superintendent of budget and planning.
Next year’s proposed school budget includes the request for the cameras, plus digital video recorders and related equipment. The school board is scheduled to vote on the budget Thursday.
About 200 cameras are used now to monitor activity in the city’s six middle and high schools. None of the division’s 14 elementary schools have them, but under the proposal, four would get exterior cameras: John Tyler,
Brighton, James Hurst and the new Park View, slated to open next school year.
Those primary schools were selected because they are in “high-traffic neighborhoods,” Pendarvis said. “We have lots of people going by the schools.”
The effort grew out of the school board’s retreat last summer, when police and school officials talked about school security issues, including gangs.
The school division was making the transition from VHS recording systems for security to more efficient digital video recorders.
Earlier this school year, a Portsmouth police officer and two school maintenance employees assessed the camera coverage and made recommendations on where to add more, Pendarvis said. The survey was done during regular working hours at no charge to the division.
This week, school board member Jim Hewitt said additional cameras could reduce the number of student discipline cases by deterring crime and bad behavior. Board Chairman James Bridgeford agreed.
“Let’s take a look at areas where we don’t have coverage and get them covered before something does happen,” Bridgeford said.
School officials also agreed that adding cameras could help solve more cases.
“A lot of stuff goes on in schools, and we don’t catch everything,” Bridgeford said.
Kevin Brown, a school administrator who works on security issues, said there have been about 460 student discipline hearings this school year. About 110 of those, he said, were serious enough to come before the board.
Of those cases, 89 resulted in long-term suspensions and 16 in expulsions, he said. In about five of the cases, students were sent to alternative centers. In one case, a student was cleared and allowed back to school, he said.
Brown said student offenses have included more than 100 fights, two sexual assaults that involved groping, three assaults on teachers who were trying to break up fights and a couple of malicious woundings. There also have been about 10 cases each of possessing knives, distributing drugs and trespassing and one case of possession of a BB or pellet gun.
Some of the incidents in the schools have involved “noted gangs,” Brown said.
He estimated that there are 15 to 20 recognized gangs operating in middle and high schools, as well as at the alternative school that houses New Directions and other programs.
Some of the groups are “well-organized with a leadership structure and bylaws,” Brown said
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