Surveillance cameras provide extra security at Hinton school

Hinton Community School beefed up its security this summer with the installation of video surveillance cameras.

Larry Williams, Hinton's interim superintendent, said putting in the cameras is just added safety of the students.

"There were no incidents," Williams said. "I think it's to respond to a general situation if you can err on the side of greater safety, there's a tendency to do that."

Sue Martens, Hinton High School principal, said the cameras cover every hallway and entrance to the school building.

"Some of the students have been interested, wanted to know all about them and what they do," Martens said. "We told them it's a safety and security issue."

She said the cameras have the capability of zooming in on a particular portion of the hallway and exterior of the building.

"They're quite inconspicuous," Martens said. "You can't see what direction the camera is facing."

Although a new safety measure at Hinton school, other public Plymouth County school districts already have cameras in place on their campuses.

Those surveillance tools have been beneficial in catching vandals, monitoring student behavior in school hallways and resolving situations based on taped evidence, according to school officials.

Derek Briggs, Akron-Westfield High School principal, said the 30 interior and exterior cameras at the school were purchased six to seven years ago.

"The cameras helped us solve our most recent break-in which was four years ago," Briggs said. "The individuals who broke into the school, we found out who they were and they were dealt with legally."

Akron-Westfield also added motion detector lights about three years ago, Briggs said.

It's the third year Kingsley-Pierson schools have had video surveillance cameras, said Superintendent Scott Bailey.

There are six cameras in the Pierson facility and 12 in Kingsley.

Even though all the doors at both campuses are locked during the day, the cameras cover all access points so school officials would know if someone did try to enter the buildings, Bailey said.

"We had a break-in six months prior to us initially putting them in," Bailey said. "With the cameras, it would have let us solve that."

With the new technology, Bailey can monitor the 18 surveillance cameras at both facilities from his office via the Internet.

At Remsen-Union nine video surveillance cameras were installed last February around the interior and exterior of the school.

"We've had some incidents where reviewing the camera tapes have helped resolve some incidents within the building," said Ken Howard, R-U superintendent. "It's additional safety precautions for our students and staff to have those in place."

Le Mars Community Schools (LCS) have had cameras on the exterior of the middle and high schools for years.

A half-dozen new cameras were installed in the summer of 2008 with the opening of the new middle school gymnasium and the addition to the high school, said Dr. Todd Wendt, LCS superintendent.

"They mostly take a look at entrances and parking lots," Wendt said. "Our primary motivation for having them is to catch vandals."

LCS do not have interior cameras as administrators don't see that as being necessary at this time, Wendt said.

"We prefer the old-fashioned way of having teachers in the hallways during class," Wendt said. "Adult supervision is better than having cameras, in my opinion."

Throughout the districts, all the superintendents held fast to one aspect when it comes to having video surveillance cameras.

"They're to help us monitor the school to help try to ensure a safe environment for all of our kids," Briggs said.