Attention all middle school students of the Etiwanda School District: Watch out! The schools have recently installed security cameras on several of our campuses. Any nose pickers or wedgie givers better refrain from the temptation!

While you may be looking around to point fingers at that one kid who alway breaks the rules, think again. This may shock you, but he is not totally to blame. The school put up the cameras as a precautionary measure, in case an unwelcome visitor or vandal were to come onto campus.

Our school district’s superintendent, Dr. Shawn Judson, is in charge of these “new eyes” that are currently watching our every move. They were put up to keep our school safe and for disciplinary reasons. “The cameras are part of an overall program for safety and security on school campuses,” Judson said.

“So right now schools have things like fences and gates and shrubbery that’s planted in the way to make sure campuses are safe and secure. [There is also] a security guard here on the campus as well,” which is great, since students all seem to love officer David. “The security cameras are another way for the district to make sure the campus is safe, to deter people who shouldn’t be here from coming onto our campuses, to deter vandalism after hours and just to keep our students and staff safe overall,” Judson explains. Wait, so bushes aren’t enough protection?

The cameras were not cheap. It cost quite a bit to set up a security system on a large campus. “The funding for the cameras came from Measure I, which was the measure people in Etiwanda voted for in November of 2017. And we are just beginning to get access to the funds,” Judson explains. The district received over a million dollars. Our school got ninety-five thousand dollars from that of that money. “EIS [Etiwanda Intermediate School’s cameras] cost about ninety-five thousand. Falcon Ridge got about fifty thousand. I would estimate each school got around sixty thousand,” Judson said. That is a whole lot of money.

If you think our school is special and is the only campus that has cameras, then you’ll be disappointed to know that we are just average. Heritage Intermediate School was actually the first middle school to get cameras. “All four middle schools were chosen. Actually Heritage Intermediate got the cameras a few years ago, but we didn’t have the funding then to put them at all the middle schools,” he said. So, what is happening here is happening throughout all the other middle schools. Except Heritage. They were the guinea pigs.

If you are a concerned older brother or sister and you’re happy to think that your sibling’s schools have cameras on their campuses, I’m about to spoil your relief. The elementary schools aren’t there just yet. “The security cameras will be on all of our sites eventually. We’re starting with our middle schools since they are the larger campuses, “ Judson said. This is apparently something the district does a lot. It’s understandable, though. Who would want to spend so much money on security systems for seventeen campuses without working out the kinks? The only elementary school that has cameras so far is Falcon Ridge Elementary. This makes sense, since it is a new campus.

If you’re worried that the cameras will catch you trip and fall in the hallway and that the footage will be there forever, calm down. The cameras only record for twenty days. After those twenty days, the footage is destroyed. Gone! But you may also be thinking, What about the person who watches the cameras? They saw me trip.” “There is not a person sitting and watching the cameras all day,” Judson explains.  Feel better now? You don’t have to worry about the cameras. Just worry about your friends who saw you fall.

So now our school is under the district’s eyes. All you wrongdoers better watch out. If the district is informed of student conflict, they will go back and use the recordings as evidence. Maybe someone should go warn that troublemaker.

So do you feel safer now knowing that cameras can act as a deterrent for people who want do harm on our campus? Or is the feeling of cameras recording your every single move too much for you? Our campus seemed safe before. But then again, we can never be too sure…