Invest in teaching, not monitoring, SHS students

Published: Monday, December 14, 2009

Some members of the Amherst and Mont Vernon communities are urging Souhegan High School to install security cameras to monitor student actions.

They cite the recent tragedy in Mont Vernon as evidence that the school needs a monitoring system.

Security cameras wouldn’t benefit the Souhegan community, and they would, in fact, strain the safe environment that exists at the school. It’s unfortunate that some have decided to lash out at the environment of trust at Souhegan that teachers, students and administrators work so hard to maintain. Security cameras would ruin this environment of mutual respect and trust between teachers and students.

As a Souhegan student, I know that teenagers respond to reasonable and targeted disciplinary action better than generalized authoritarian measures. Measures such as security cameras are no substitute for administrators and teachers doing their jobs to work out issues with students, as they do now.

Furthermore, security cameras would tax the already tight school budget. Last year, five Souhegan faculty members were laid off in the budgetary process, and this year, three more are likely to be cut.

The effects of this cutback are apparent, particularly in the math department, where classes are crowded. It doesn’t make sense to pay thousands of dollars for a monitoring system and additional money in salary to pay someone to watch them 18 hours or so a day when the school can’t even afford to keep all of its teachers.

It would be unfortunate for an educational institution to invest in monitoring the behavior of its students instead of investing more in teaching them.

What’s even more disturbing is that some members of the community are suggesting that security cameras in the school could have prevented an event like the recent tragedy in Mont Vernon.

Souhegan has guidance counselors and advisers for every student, a social worker, a psychologist, a student resource officer and a dean of students. All of these people are committed to the well-being of the student population, and security cameras wouldn’t be able to detect any strange or inappropriate student behavior that any of these people couldn’t detect.

Furthermore, the students involved in Mont Vernon tragedy didn’t make their plans on school grounds, where a camera might have detected any suspicious behavior involved in the planning.

Columbine High School had security cameras; the only purpose they served in the incident there was allowing us to see all of the horrifying images on the news after the fact.

Karen Tuthill, who recently wrote a guest commentary in The Telegraph regarding this subject, continually referred to the student body of Souhegan as “children.” Ms. Tuthill specifically disparaged the decisions made by Souhegan’s Community Council regarding security cameras because many of the council’s members are “children.”

Ms. Tuthill should know that anyone who attends a Community Council meeting will attest that the student members of Community Council possess the intelligence and maturity to make pragmatic decisions on important issues such as this one.

It should be noted that the council is also made up of teachers, administrators and community members, and that the School Board has never once gone against a Community Council decision.

I invite Ms. Tuthill, and anyone else who believes Souhegan needs security cameras, to spend a day at the school. They’ll find that Souhegan isn’t a haven for drugs, mischief and teenage angst.

Rather, they’ll find that it’s a safe and welcoming environment where students are valued and respected, and I would argue that this, not one that includes security cameras, is the best kind of environment in which to learn.

Justin DeWaele is a senior at Souhegan High School in Amherst.