BY MARC LALONDE

marc.lalonde@transcontinental.ca

St. John Fisher elementary school principal Chuck Poirier sat back and pointed to the video-surveillance monitor from which he can see every remote corner of the senior school’s campus.

“Simply put, this is the best way we have to keep the kids and the building safe,” he said.

Poirier and his school are ahead of the game when it comes to school video surveillance.

A new Lester B. Pearson School Board policy requiring all its institutions to have certain areas of the school under video surveillance will go into effect this time next year, and thanks to Poirier — and the school’s governing board — everybody who comes in the door at St. John Fisher should smile, because they’re on camera.

“Nobody comes through that door without me seeing them first,” he said.

A sign indicating the school has security cameras is posted on the front door, and you’re greeted by an intercom behind a second locked door before being allowed access to the building.

Poirier said the video surveillance has been a hit with both teachers and parents.

“The parents really seem to like it. They feel that their child is safer, and that gives them increased peace of mind,” he said.

Lester B. Pearson School Board chairman Marcus Tabachnick said keeping kids safe is basically schools’ primary mandate, along with education.

“Certainly that’s one of the things we need to do. Safety is the number-one job for us.”

Tabachnick said that since not all Pearson schools are equipped with cameras, those that don’t already have them have until next year to get them installed. Those who already have them, however, report satisfaction.

“There’s no question, though, in the schools that do have them, people feel safer and it’s been well-received, and it’s helped us out in terms of our buildings as well,”

he said.

At John Rennie High School, which has had surveillance cameras for about five years now, the system is equally helpful, principal Nancy Sweer said.

“It’s a very, very good thing for us to have. We don’t sit there all day and monitor what kids are up to, but if we have an incident, or there’s someone in the school who’s not supposed to be, we can go back and check it out on video,” she said.

Students and parents needn’t worry about Big Brother-type intrusion into daily activities at the school.

“We’re not trying to be Big Brother to anyone, and we never use it to follow activities, but it is helpful. For instance, a few years back, a student had brought a home-made Molotov cocktail and set the washroom on fire with it. We weren’t able to see him, because there aren’t any cameras in the bathroom, but we were able to identify him based on shots of him going in and coming out around the time of the incident,” Sweer said.