District to install security cameras at
school
Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review | July 12 2004
Mary Kate DeCoursey doesn't like the idea
of school officials watching her eat lunch, talk to her friends or walk
into North Allegheny Senior High School.
"Unless there is a specific reason to
have security cameras, like there was a problem, I don't think they should
be in the school," said DeCoursey, 17, of Franklin Park. "It's
an invasion of privacy. Why do they need to watch us?"
But North Allegheny will be watching. The district will
pay The Comm Group Inc., of Robinson, $56,820 to install 17 security cameras
inside and outside the senior high school in McCandless. Two additional
cameras will be placed in the Baierl Center, a sports and activity facility
that sits on the school's campus.
The cameras are to be installed by the beginning of the
school year.
While the idea of cameras is making some students cringe,
school officials say they want to be able to better monitor hallways and
entrances to protect students, staff and property. Jim Beierle, a school
board member, said no specific incident prompted the camera purchase.
North Allegheny officials in the past have spurned using
dogs to search for drugs or conducting student drug tests, saying such measures
were unnecessary and would create a police state at the school.
Beierle said he doesn't believe the cameras conflict with
that line of thinking.
"After a while, I don't think the students will even
notice them," he said.
North Allegheny junior Kevin Vater said he welcomes the
addition of the cameras.
"I think it will cut down on vandalism and bullying,
and if something happens it won't be one person's word against another,"
said Vater, 17, of Marshall. "It will make people accountable."
In recent years, many school districts across the country,
as well as in the Pittsburgh area, have installed security cameras in and
outside school buildings, said Mike Farrell, sales engineer for The Comm
Group.
Farrell said while urban schools have had cameras for years,
more suburban schools began doing so after the April 1999 shootings at Columbine
High School in Littleton, Co.
"Installing cameras is kind of like the norm nowadays,"
Farrell said.
Pittsburgh Public, Seneca Valley, Allegheny Valley, North
Hills, West Mifflin Area, Penn Hills, Steel Valley, Quaker Valley, Fox Chapel
Area and Chartiers Valley are among the local school districts that use
security cameras.
Vic Walczak, legal director of the Greater Pittsburgh Chapter
of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the cameras don't violate students'
constitutional rights as long as they are not installed in bathrooms or
dressing areas.
"Students do not have an expectation of privacy in
school," Walczak said.
