Big Brother guards Nunavut schools

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Hi-tech security cameras kept a watchful eye over Iqaluit students last week as they walked school hallways and played tag in playgrounds.

Security specialists mounted the digital video cameras near entrances to the schools and outside classrooms this summer as part of the government of Nunavut’s efforts to fend off future vandals, by intimidating them with the prospect of getting caught on tape.

Members of the Iqaluit District Education Authority requested the cameras after young arsonists set a couch on fire at the back of Nakasuk School in November last year. Firefighters evacuated Inuksuk high school students around the same time, when staff found a garbage can on fire in a washroom. Neither case has been solved.

Lorne Levy, a government of Nunavut capital projects manager overseeing the camera installations, said the cabinet agreed to put the cameras in Iqaluit as a pilot project. Levy and other bureaucrats are already planning to put the digital recording devices in all 44 schools around Nunavut.

The entire territory-wide project will cost an estimated $1,230,000, including cameras already installed. Cameras are already up and running in the Kivalliq, at Baker Lake’s two schools. Government officials also expect larger schools will have new alarm systems, which will replace conventional metal keys with plastic computer cards.

“It’s pretty reasonable when you consider the cost of replacing… a school,” Levy said of the project’s price tag. “It’s also hard to put a dollar figure on the on the cost of stress and lost time [caused by vandalism].”

Levy said government took a delicate approach to the camera project because of fears that they would be invading the privacy of staff and students.

However, Levy said he assured the teachers’ union, other staff and students that cameras would only be mounted at main entrances and key hallways.

He added that only school principals and potentially RCMP and government education officials will have access to images caught on camera.

Levy said if the cameras scare off potential vandals, it will be hard to measure the success of the camera system until officials compare the number of vandalism incidents over the next years, with previous statistics.

“I’d be most happy if we don’t see anything but happy people walking around,” he said.

Levy declined to say how many cameras are spread throughout Iqaluit’s four open schools, or how many cameras will be installed in the new Joamie School.

The cameras, about the size of an adult’s fist, have already been tested and continue to be used for security at several GN buildings.

They sit behind cloudy plexiglass bubbles and record 22 days worth of footage, which is stored in a nearby computer before being erased. If there’s been an incident, officials can burn CDs of what the cameras have seen, to use in criminal investigations. With the current setup, the camera security system runs itself, and doesn’t need anyone to monitor it.

Last week, students and staff at Inuksuk High School walked past the cameras nonchalantly. Although most seemed to know about the cameras, none seem concerned about government invading their privacy.

Terry Young, principal of Inuksuk high school, said students supported having cameras because they would protect the schools.

“They’re not taking any private shots,” Young said of the cameras, while looking at the black-and-white images they were recording. “The students are very positive that they’re here in the school.

“They feel if anyone wants to damage or tries to wreak havoc in the school, it may be a deterrent to those people.”

However, government officials remain modest about the cameras’ ability to stop people from breaking into the schools or wrecking school property.

“Let’s face it,” said Joe McKeaveney, a GN employee who helped design the new school security systems. “A security camera isn’t going to stop vandalism.

“It’s going to deter vandalism.”

Funding for the cameras and extra security measures will come from a surplus of about $1-million in the Joamie school construction.