"Charlottesville High School teachers and administrators will have a set of fresh eyes to help monitor the campus next year; specifically, 40 security cameras. This is the first comprehensive camera surveillance system in City schools, but it may not be the last. Nationwide, cameras in schools are the latest attempt to curb violence, al- I though there's no conclusive evidence they actually deter incidents in school.

About 30 percent of all schools have at least one camera, says Dennis White, a research associate and planning analyst at George Washington University's Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence. White says that, while he regularly fields questions about cameras' effectiveness in deterring incidents, there is little far-reaching information available, and it frustrates him. 'It would be fairly straightforward for the Education Department to include this [question] as a part of their regular surveying,' White says.

Despite the lack of information, last month the Charlottesville School Board approved Acting Superintendent Bobby Thompson's request to spend $70,000 on the devices, which will record activity in hallways, courtyards and the cafeteria. The expenditure may prove unnecessary, however, as states can use grant money from the federal No Child Left Behind Act to buy surveillance cameras, as well as to buy and install other security devices, such as metal detectors and electronic locks.

Lou Bograd was the lone dissenting vote on the School Board. The former civil liberties lawyers says he comes at the issue as a 'civil libertarian,' and that he's concerned about the escalation of security measures, especially since CHS was already subject earlier this year to searches by drug-sniffing dogs. Another important factor, he notes, is the effect on school culture.

'One of the things we all say we want to accomplish in our schools is to create a culture of trust and respect, in order to create an environment in which discipline is significantly less of a problem,' Bograd says. 'Security cameras in the high school is inconsistent with that goal.'

Moreover, there's not much reason to think that security cameras will deter the kinds of aggressive behavior seen in some City schools this year. 'What's confusing to me,' Bograd says, 'is that the problems that have gotten the attention this year-which have involved some increase in fighting and disrespectful behavior toward teachers and sadministrators--are precisely not the sort of things that will be addressed by security cameras. They're the kind of thing that takes place in plain view, right in front of the teachers.'" (Esther Brown, C-Ville Weekly, April 11, 2006)