Souhegan eyes cameras again

Thursday, November 17, 2011

When you consider the issue of installing cameras in the school parking lot, as the School Board at Souhegan High School is doing, it comes down to two points of view, as our Dean Shalhoup reported last week:

1. Cameras would fly in the face of the principles upon which Souhegan was founded and serve to undo the environment of mutual trust, respect and personal responsibility that faculty and students have established.

2. Cameras would make the school safer and act as a deterrent to theft, vandalism, illegal drug use and unsafe driving.

Right.

On both counts.

And therein lies the rub, and the question, really, is this:

Can you have it both ways? Could school officials install cameras without losing the trust of students and, perhaps, faculty? Certainly, the kids who are in Souhegan now might react negatively; some faculty members, too.

But say cameras were installed by the end of this school year.

Would any students set to graduate in, say, 2017 care? Those kids are in seventh grade and probably unaware of the debate over cameras.

So, the answer is probably no, because by the time those kids get to Souhegan, cameras would have been in place for two years and no one would be talking about them, unless a really major bust occurred as a result of their presence. Then a lot of people would be applauding.

And that brings us to the real question:

How major is the problem in the Souhegan High parking areas? Are kids getting into fights, are they breaking into cars, are they smoking weed?

Well, our story last week referenced statistics provided by School Resource Officer John Smith, to wit: During the past three years there were 17 incidents of theft, 14 incidents of vandalism, 15 incidents of driving to endanger and nine incidents of trespassing.

Would cameras have caught, for instance, the license numbers of those driving to endanger? Who knows?

But there’s a good chance they would have gotten pictures of vandals, at least some of whom, we can hope, would be too stupid to hide their faces.

We understand the concern of those who fear for the Souhegan philosophy, which we think is a good one.

But we are not ready to say no to cameras, at least not yet. More discussion is needed and the School Board is going to provide that.

Good for them.