Linganore High School (LHS) along with many other highschools in Frederick County have recently been upgraded to new camera systems to increase security within the buildings. This is the first time that the security system has been upgraded at Linganore since 2010 when the building was built.
The new camera systems have an increased camera quality and a new fish eye lens, which provides a 360 degree view. This means that there can be fewer cameras installed but with more coverage, since there is no longer a need for multiple cameras in one location. In addition to this new technology, there are going to be cameras located in places that there were not before. Places like the stairwells and the auxiliary gym are getting some cameras to eliminate as many blindspots as possible.
This upgrade is being done with a $415,000 grant given to all of FCPS by the Maryland Center for School Safety. The grant is meant to fund security improvements at seven schools in the county. This grant does not just include new cameras but completely new servers and software to run this new technology. Linganore is getting $40,597 of this grant to upgrade the obsolete cameras and systems from when the building was built.
The person in charge of installing these security systems is Jeff Seymour, who works internally at FCPS with Safety and Emergency Management. Seymour talked about the process he has gone through at each of these schools to get the new cameras and systems installed.
“The first move was to get everybody on the new software that we were using, and the next step was to install servers in all the schools that would accommodate the new software,” Seymour said. “So now, we’re going through and upgrading the cameras to be up to par with the new servers.”
One reason for the addition of cameras in new places throughout the building is because students often frequent places they know do not have cameras. Students may hide out in these spaces to skip class or when they want to go somewhere quiet during lunch. One of the most common places students like to go is the stairwells throughout the building. However, with the new cameras covering the previously unmonitored stairwells, students will not have this option.
One Linganore student who preferred not to be named discussed some of their own reasons for going to places
like the stairwell and what they think about these new cameras.
“I think the new cameras are kinda pointless, but I guess they can be important since some kids are having fights in here,” the student said. “But, I just come here to chill and talk with my friends.”
Despite the many perks that are coming with this new system, it will take away a place that many students go during lunch when they just want some peace and quiet.
While it is important for students to have somewhere quiet they can go to decompress, there were other students that took advantage of the fact there were no cameras in the stairwell for less innocuous reasons. Deputy Abby Berisford, a school resource officer at Linganore, shared what she uses the cameras for on a daily basis and why the school system chose to put cameras in the stairwell.
“A lot of kids knew that there were no cameras in the stairwell, so that’s where they went to do bad things,” Berisford said. “I don’t use the cameras until someone comes and asks me to look for something at a specific time, which happens a few times a day.”
According to Seymour, the installation process for installing the new cameras in the building has been going on for the past three months and is planned to be completed in all schools by spring break, when staff will be able to complete cabling through the classrooms while no students are in the building.
