Walpole School Officials Still Favor Surveillance Cameras, While Student Protest Group Picks Up Steam

Walpole Public Schools Superintendent Lincoln Lynch said at Thursday's school committee meeting that he has not yet heard anything to make him change his mind about installing surveillance cameras in the hallways of the high school.

In the past two weeks, Lynch has met with students, including the student protest group Students Opposing Surveillance (SOS), and faculty to discuss concerns and comments about the proposal.

“I have yet to hear any arguments that would make me change my recommendation at this point,” Lynch said.

The recommendation is an article on the warrant for May's Spring Annual Town Meeting to install 20 cameras in the hallways of the high school at a cost of $37,000.

SOS believes the cameras are an invasion of privacy and have been circulating a petition around the high school against the installation of the cameras. According to the group's Facebook page they have collected over 500 signatures.

"We have over 500 signatures from students and are no longer being ignored. Administration and Dr. Lincoln Lynch know we mean business," the Facebook post said.

The group's cause has received regional media attention this week after being featured on Fox 25 and in the Boston Globe.

“There’s been some attention and I will continue to meet with people as they wish,” said Lynch.

Lynch said that while he disagrees with the group's concerns about the cameras being an invasion of privacy he is glad that they are willing to stick up for their fellow students.

For him, however, the cameras are a matter of safety and security.

“They were concerned that it would be used as a tool for discipline. But my focus has been on school security and using the cameras in the event of an incident, along with law enforcement, to identify the location of an intruder and to provide the police a quicker response time to address that,” he said.

“I believe it will save lives if we were in that position,” said Lynch.

School committee chair Nancy Gallivan was in agreement with Lynch in that they could be helpful to law enforcement officials if a situation were to arise.

“I feel very strongly that the climate of the high school is positive. We don’t want this to be something that undoes that. On the other hand, if the law enforcement people are telling us that this is a piece of equipment that we need to feel safe if they have to be the first responders, that makes a big statement to me,” she said.

Lynch said that in his discussions with students he has offered to let them serve on a policy writing committee that would create a policy and a protocol for when the cameras would be used.

"Who would look at the cameras, when they would look at it and it would be a high school protocol," he said.

For now, school administrators are willing to keep the lines of communication open and discuss the issue further.

“I’m not going to tell them what to think and I’m not going to ask them to tell me what I should think. But we should be able to discuss what each of us thinks and then determine what our position is from there," said Lynch.

Related articles:

• Walpole High Student Group Lobbying Against Surveillance Cameras in Hallways
• SOS Group States Case to Walpole School Committee
• Walpole Schools Chief: Cameras in School Hallways 'Meant to Save Lives' not 'Invade Students' Privacy'