And Hall County schools Superintendent Will Schofield said he expects the system will have to cut an additional $10 million from its budget next year.Īrmour said new cameras for school buses were included in this fiscal year’s budget, which began July 1, but state cuts are forcing school districts to reprioritize. The Hall County school system stands to lose roughly $2.5 million in state funding this year. Jerry Castleberry, director of transportation for Gainesville schools, said all 46 of the city system’s operating school buses have working cameras mounted above the bus driver’s seat.Īrmour said ideally, the Hall County school system would have every bus outfitted with cameras to ensure the safety of all children, but the system is trying to trim its budget to absorb pending cuts from the state. You don’t know that it’s not recording until you bring it in to look at a videotape like this incident, and then when you get ready to pull it up, it’s not there. "I know several that do not work," Armour said. But even the new cameras sometimes fail to function, he said, and the old ones are difficult to repair locally. Of the school system’s 214 buses, Armour said at least 24 have been equipped with new digital camera systems that cost upward of $1,500. There is no law requiring buses to have cameras."Īrmour said students who disobey bus rules automatically are suspended from bus-riding privileges for five days. For years and years there was no such thing as cameras on buses," he said. But they have to report what they do see. "(Bus drivers) are not going to see everything, and we know that. Jewel Armour, executive director of transportation for Hall County schools, said all Hall County school buses likely did have cameras at one point, but now the system doesn’t have the funds to repair some of the old broken cameras on buses. Nearly 22,000 students regularly ride Hall County school buses, and many buses carry up to 89 students at a time. "The camera would be the eyes in the back of their head. If a camera had been rolling, it’d be there in black and white," Sims said. "The bus driver said she didn’t, quote, see it. When Sims went to Chestatee Middle School to obtain video footage of the incident on the bus, she said she was shocked to find that there was no footage. "A high school girl slapped a middle school girl on the bus, and that girl happened to be my granddaughter," Sims said. Video cameras are strategically placed in the classrooms, hallways and school yards of Hall County schools.Ī recent altercation on a school bus involving her middle school-aged granddaughter has Judith Sims wondering why cameras aren’t installed on buses recording the actions of children on their commutes to and from school.
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