Charley Reese | January 22 2006

NEEDHAM, Mass. -- School officials in Needham are deciding whether or not surveillance cameras should be installed in the town's high school.

NewsCenter 5's Jim Boyd reported Friday that as construction workers approach the final stages of the school's $55 million expansion project, Needham High School Principal Paul Richards will decide if a state-of-the-art surveillance system should be installed in the building.

"In the main areas -- say, the entrances, the parking lots, the outside -- that's probably where you'd see most of the cameras. We are considering a few cameras on the inside in some of the common areas," Richards said.

Needham School Committee member Marianne Cooley said that the cameras may boost security outside the building, but she said that the cameras should not be used to monitor student activity during the day.

"Maybe in the sense of after school, external areas. We certainly have seen vandalism in the parking lots and around the school building, and perhaps this will help as a deterrent," Cooley said.

Some parents said that cameras at the high school would be a sign of the times.

"In this day and age, it is becoming necessary for the kids' safety and the vandalism. With the kids sneaking drugs into school and alcohol and stuff, I think it's become necessary," parent Pat Sullivan said.

Some students said that they were skeptical of the idea.

"I think that we should have surveillance cameras outside, but not inside because it would be a little bit creepy, like being watched," one student said.

"I don't think they should be put in classrooms. I don't think that would be helpful to the learning environment. But outside the classroom in the halls, I think that would be a really good idea," another student said.

Richards planned to address the issue during a school committee meeting by the end of the month.

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