Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 26, 1995 TAG: 9508280022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The box might be concealing a video camera.
The county school system will begin using cameras on some buses, particularly on those with discipline problems.
But neither the driver nor students will know when their actions are being taped, because the cameras will be inside boxes. Some of the boxes will be decoys with no cameras inside.
The boxes will be at the front of the buses, above the windshield.
"The camera can be used to monitor the children and driver if there are problems on a bus," said Robert Woolwine, transportation supervisor for county schools.
"If the kids are acting up, we can find out what they are doing. And there might be some cases where we want to check on the driver."
The camera would begin recording when the bus' ignition switch is turned on.
Woolwine said some school systems in the eastern part of the state are using the boxes and cameras.
The school system can't afford to buy cameras for all 145 buses, Woolwine said, so it will use the boxes to keep children and drivers guessing about whether they are being monitored.
Woolwine said the cameras cost between $700 and $1,500. The boxes cost $150.
Woolwine said he is reviewing nearly a dozen different makes and models of cameras and will select one soon.
Initially, the county will buy one camera and 10 to 15 boxes for each high school. The cameras easily can be moved from one bus to another, but the boxes will remain on the buses.
The boxes and cameras also can be used on middle and elementary school routes because the same buses transport those children.
Woolwine said the county eventually will have boxes on all buses.
County school officials said they will have a renewed emphasis on bus safety when the school year begins Sept.5.
Garland Life, director of instruction, said all elementary teachers will be reminded that they must include bus safety in the instruction program for all children in kindergarten and the early grades.
Bus drivers also will go into elementary classrooms and instruct the children on safety, he said.
Woolwine said the school system also has bought a video that alerts children to the danger of catching their book bags, handbags, drawstrings or clothing on a bus handrail.
A kindergarten child was killed in a bus accident in the county last school year.
by CNB