The Benton Harbor (Mich.) district is taking advantage of its spring break this week by installing 250 security cameras on the campus of Benton Harbor High School.
The Benton Harbor Herald-Palladium reports that every area of the high school except locker rooms and restrooms will be covered by a camera, including classrooms.
“That’s going to be full coverage of the entire high school as well as 10 card access doors around the perimeter,” says Troy Boone, chief operating officer with the Benton Harbor Area District..
Twenty-six of the cameras will be placed outside to monitor the parking lots, sidewalks and doors.
Superintendent Bob Herrera says that at other school districts he has worked in, some of the teachers have balked at having cameras in their classrooms. But, Herrera says, teachers union President Matthew Nicholls was very supportive of the idea.
The cost of the project—$358,971—will be paid for from a $2 million Public Safety/Gang Prevention grant the district received from the Michigan Department of Education in 2016.
Boone says the cameras are high resolution and can be zoomed digitally. He says there will be three or four large video monitors in the school resource officer area, where 30 to 40 cameras can be monitored on each screen.
Some of the cameras will record all of the time while others will be motion activated. Recordings will be saved for 30 days.
