All eyes are on Bear River as we become the first school in our district to have a new security camera system installed.
According to Vice Principal Cathy Peterson, 153 new security cameras were installed all over the Bear River campus over the summer. They were purchased with funds from Measure B, part of which emphasized school safety. Bear River is the first school in the Nevada Joint Unified School District to receive this new system, but other high schools in the district will be receiving the new camera system as well. Ms. Peterson went on to say that the surveillance cameras were placed mainly to watch the parking lots for students driving recklessly and to watch the campus to prevent any vandalism.
Many students have reported feeling as though they’re criminals being watched, but Bear River’s Principal Dr. Amy Besler explained that this is not at all the intent of the new system.
“I can understand that students might perceive the presence of cameras everywhere negatively, as though our objective is to watch their every move in an effort to catch them doing something wrong,” Dr. Besler said.
Sure enough, this is where the thoughts of some students immediately went.
“It’s kind of creepy,” said freshman Avrianna Metz-Thompson. “I’m probably going to get in trouble a lot this year.”
Dr. Besler said that these student fears “could not be further from the truth.” She then explained that the vast majority of problems at Bear River have happened at night, or on the weekends.
“(My goal is to) keep our campus safe for our students and protect our property so that it continues to be a beautiful place for all of us to enjoy,” Dr. Besler said.
Ms. Peterson agreed with Dr. Besler’s explanation of what the cameras will be used for. She said that they don’t need the cameras during the school day most of the time.
“It’s really all about safety and about being able to protect the campus — mainly when we’re not here,” Ms. Peterson said. “When we’re here, we have eyes on, when we’re not, we don’t.”
Some students are more concerned about the quantity of the cameras than the fact that they’re there in the first place.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find a spot on campus not covered at this point,” Ms. Peterson said.
“The cameras are excessive,” said Matthew Phipps, a sophomore.
“It’s like it’s safe, but it’s kind of overly safe, in a way,” agreed senior Jakob Berger.
However, Ms. Peterson again assured everyone that there is not someone always looking at the cameras, trying to find things that people are doing wrong.
“We have better things to do with our time than to sit and watch you…” said Ms. Peterson. “I’ll go outside if I want to look at kids!”
Some students don’t mind the cameras, and find that it doesn’t change their life very much at all.
“I honestly haven’t noticed them that much,” said Adam Merrill, a sophomore. “It hasn’t made an impact at all on my life. I mean cool, cool stop that vandalism.”
