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Cameras, cops help keep schools safe SCHOOLS Officials must educate and protect
Surveillance cameras, resource officers keep the region's schools safeDate published: 9/28/2007 BY KAREN BOLIPATA Just after lunch, Principal Joe Rodkey patrols the halls of Massaponax High School in Spotsylvania County. He checks exterior doors to see if they're locked. There is only one unlocked door in the building, all 263,000 square feet of it, he says. All who enter that door must check in with the receptionist who sits in front of it. Except today. A door leading to the outdoor senior lunch area is ajar--not good. "One time is too many," he said. With 89 exterior doors, 125 acres of campus and more than 2,000 people in the building, Rodkey and school personnel have a lot of ground to cover. But they get help: a $1.2-million initiative to install cameras in all Spotsylvania schools three years ago has shortened the investigative process for identifying perpetrators of on-campus offenses, Rodkey said. School administrators and the Spotsylvania Sheriff's Office have online access to the cameras, which archive each day. "What would take us two or three days in the past now can take an hour or two to get to the bottom of it if it's on film," Rodkey said. "Videos don't lie." Throughout the region, school administrators hail school resource officers and video cameras as among the best preventive security measures. The April shooting at Virginia Tech brought school safety concerns back into the spotlight. But for Stafford County, a previous high-profile school shooting prompted the addition of surveillance cameras in schools: Columbine. "Columbine was a turning point in all school security," said Greg Martin, Stafford schools' safety, security and risk management specialist. Soon after the incident, the county implemented new security measures, and cameras were among the first additions. Brett Schlegel, Spotsylvania's coordinator of school safety, said the implementation of cameras and resource officers weren't brought on by one big event. Rather, ensuring safety is an ongoing effort. About 50 school-related shootings have occurred since Columbine in 1999, with five on college campuses, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Schlegel said the Virginia Tech shooting has changed the way schools approach safety. "After every incident there's something that can be learned from that," he said. "We've been concerned about school safety long before Virginia Tech."
Date published: 9/28/2007
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