More eyes soon will be watching over high school students via security cameras in the Fulton County school system, recently shaken by threats at Roswell's Centennial High.
The Fulton school board approved a security plan Thursday costing between $850,000 and $1 million that will use proceeds from the SPLOST IV penny sales tax to raise the number of cameras from 48 to 60 per high school.
School officials said the additional cameras will help cut down on blind spots and offer administrators greater capability to watch campuses remotely -- even from home on weekends if they choose.
“Cameras are part of the puzzle for the overall safety and security of a campus,” said Patrick Burke, chief of operations for Fulton schools. “Given the square footage of our high schools and the restorations we have been doing, it makes sense that we add some additional cameras.”
Security cameras are common in metro Atlanta schools. They are used to protect kids, guard expensive school equipment and track bad behavior.
The security cameras in Fulton’s high schools cover more than 300,000 square feet. The new equipment will cost the district about $3,000 to $7,000 per camera. Fulton's SPLOST IV campaign is expected to generate about $822 million through 2017.
New schools will be designed with 60 security cameras, including Cambridge High in Milton and the replacement school for Banneker High in College Park. Existing schools eventually will be retrofitted to handle the expansion.
The upgrade comes as the identity of the suspect who recently threatened the safety of students at Centennial High remains a mystery.
In February, the threat of a “shootout” scrawled on a restroom wall at Centennial led to a beefed up police presence on campus.
The message -- "R.I.P. CHS kids 2/16/12. There is going to be a shootout. This is for real" -- was taken seriously by school staff.
Principal Steven Miletto alerted parents in a voicemail about the threat and Roswell police responded.
"We need our students to understand that threats are not a joke,” Miletto said in the voicemail recording.
About a month later there was a bomb threat at the school.
"That was the last threat," Fulton schools spokeswoman Samantha Evans said. "The staff of the school is more alert around identifying any type of inappropriate behavior that would compromise the safety of the school."
"I'd like at least another 48 cameras," Hershel Bennett, assistant principal of Centennial High, said Thursday as he eyed monitors that flashed images from hallways and the parking lot. He said there are still blind spots he wants to target.
Parents and students at Centennial said they welcome the idea of adding extra eyes on campus as a precaution.
“I think it’s great, especially with all of the threats going on,” said Angelica Ruddick, the guardian of a sophomore at Centennial. “It will help catch whoever is doing it.”
Sophomore Patrick Harney said more cameras will make him feel "safer" and he is in favor of them -- as long as they don't put them too close to the restrooms.
"Next to the bathroom, that's private," he said.
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