County Schools approves bus surveillance cameras on The Murfreesboro Post

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County Schools approves bus surveillance cameras

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By: MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer

Posted: Monday, February 2, 2009 10:23 am

All Rutherford County buses will be outfitted with video survelliance equipment within a month, after the Board of Education approved a contract Thursday night.

For several months, the Rutherford County Board of Education has looked into buying surveillance cameras for all its contracted buses after several criminal incidents over the past year, including alleged sexual assault and the alleged assault of a bus driver.

“This he said, she said is going away. The video doesn’t lie, said Richie Howard, chief executive officer of Angeltrax.

The board unanimously approved awarding a contract to Angeltrax for $1,859.26 per bus to install three-camera system, including Global Positioning Systems, into 128 of the county’s big school buses. The remaining small buses will be outfitted within a year.

The project will cost the school system $237,985 to install the camera systems.

The camera systems will have a front to back camera, a back camera and one at the driver to see who gets on and off the bus. The GPS will show exactly when and where the bus stops.

The driver will also have access to a panic button that when pushed flags the recording on the onboard hard drive of when an event occurs.

But all the board members weren’t convinced the cameras will help behavior on school buses.

“These cameras are not going to change behavior just record behavior,” School Board Member Donald Jernigan said. “Only as a societal thing will we change behavior.”

He then suggested reviewing the systems policy manual and student handbook to take a close look at sexual harassment and bullying policies.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.

Tagged under RCS

Member Opinions:

By: Boo on 1/30/09
I disagree with Mr. Jernigan! When these recordings, along with the parents and children involved, go to court and Judge Donna holds these parents accountable, as she is wonderful about doing, you can bet there will be a big difference in behavior on these buses. Hats off to the Board for this discision!!

By: justdance on 1/30/09

....good news!

By: 0be1 on 1/30/09
I retract my smug remarks made earlier this week about the board (potentially) not making a good decision. I am glad to hear they made the right choice.

To the members however who disagreed with the decision. Years ago we have taken away the rights in our schools to discipline children, we have let atheists bully our government taking away prayer and other things from our schools and history. What did you expect to happen as an end result?

By: barrettbear on 1/30/09
Well how can you hold parents responsible all the time for their childrens behavior, when parents are limited to disciplinary actions with fear of being known as a child abuser?

By: LilAudrey on 1/30/09
What does prayer in school have to do with this? Obviously, the children and parents responsible for this type of behavior have never stepped into a church. It is the end result of generations of thug behavior and not the lack of prayer in school.