The Board of School District 10 has decided to install security cameras on the roofs at both Nakusp Elementary School and Nakusp Secondary School.
The decision comes after several incidents of students climbing onto the roofs of the buildings to party.
The recordings will be monitored by the IT manager and manager of operations. If there is an incident where students can be identified, the process would be to contact the parents, the RCMP, and the school.
“Anytime there is damage to the schools, or there’s a concern with school property, a lot of times it’s reported to us,” said Constable Will Martin of the RCMP. “Off the top of my head, there has been spray painting the schools, there have been kids on the roof, there have been sprinkler heads that have been kicked off.”
The School Board is worried of the possibility that a student might fall.
“It is a safety issue for certain,” said Terry Taylor Superintendent/Secretary-Treasurer of SD 10. “We want to make certain our kids are safe, and if a student were to fall from the roof and injure themselves, there would be serious consequences.”
Over the summer, Art Olson, manager of operations for SD 10 was called over in the middle of the night. He was able to catch one of the students, but the others fled. The youth caught would not give any information as to whom he was with on the roof.
The board is unsure of how the students are getting onto the roofs. They have suspicions about how students are getting onto the roof at NES, but none for NSS.
The cameras installed will be motion sensitive, and the footage will be monitored off-site to prevent any theft or damage to the recordings. After three months, the footage is destroyed. This is done to quell any potential damage to a student’s future. However, for due diligence, any record of unsafe student access would be archived and documentation of student interviews would also be kept.
At this time, there is no set date for when the cameras will be installed.