By Shivali Shah, Co-Editor-In-Chief
Crumbs, spills and sticky spots are all typical to a high school lunch table. But this year, River Hill administrators believe the messes have gotten out of hand, leading to the implementation of new cafeteria security cameras.
Six cameras have been added, placed near both the entrances as well as in the center of the cafeteria. With fish-eye lenses, zoom and tracking features, the new system provides more clarity in the cafeteria chaos, a major improvement from the single outdated camera used in the past.
The new technology is hoped to reduce lunch time litter, and help identify those responsible. “Admin is in [the cafeteria] all the time. But if we see this continuation of a messy table, and it’s hard for us to see who the kids are, we have them on video,” says assistant principal Mr. Robb.
While monitoring messes is the primary reason for the cameras, the administration is also planning to use the surveillance to investigate bullying incidents. “River Hill has a low violence level, however we do have our own bullying issues that are so subtle,” Mr. Robb explains. “We can see where people are sitting, videos they take and they post, and we can cross check so we can get other witnesses [of the bullying], other than simply what we see on Instagram. It gives us more breadth of look at the incident, to be able to get more reality on what happened.”
The footage can also help track students who are leaving school grounds during lunch. Students are “just leaving and going off campus,” Mr Robb describes. “We can see kids leaving the cafeteria and just walking to Starbucks. And when we see those things, we document them.”
River Hill may just be catching up when it comes to surveillance technology. “I think different schools have a lot more cameras than we do,” Mr. Robb notes. “There was always this problem with outdated software and outdated cameras. This new software and camera system that we have can literally track a kid going from one camera to the next, to the next, to the next. So we can actually follow them and see where it is that they’re going, and that helps out a lot.”
Although the new cameras aim to address issues like bullying, untidiness and leaving school grounds, some students still feel that there are other concerns in the cafeteria that need to be addressed. For junior Aditi Vijarnia, the biggest issue was less what is happening during lunch, and more what happens before and after, “I feel like getting people in and out [of the cafeteria] at the same time is really crowded.”
Junior Shreya Thakur agrees, adding, “During transition periods, having a [better] system so that everyone’s not at the door at the same time would be great.”
While students still have some concerns about other aspects of the cafeteria, the new surveillance system represents a shift in how River Hill approaches supervision and safety. “It wasn’t that River Hill had problems that needed an enormous amount of video surveillance,” Mr. Robb says. “But it is enough that it would be neglectful if we didn’t pay attention in the environments that we have here [at River Hill].”