Cameras to go aboard buses

By Shantelle Breaux

NEWS EDITOR

CROWLEY – The Acadia Parish School Board voted at their monthly meeting Monday evening to put twenty new video cameras on Acadia Parish School buses.

The new cameras, with installation, will cost the board a total of $15,180, and will be bought from Gatekeeper Systems, Inc.

According to Steve Jones, director of Transportation for Acadia Parish Schools, once the cameras are bought they will be immediately put into the buses, probably in time for the upcoming school session.

This is not the first time cameras have been put on Acadia Parish buses.

The new cameras will be installed in buses on specific routes in the parish, according to Jones. The number and type of referrals will determine the buses the cameras go on.

According to School Board President Roland Boudreaux, the cameras will be concealed so that the students will not know if their bus has a camera on it or not.

Incidents on buses in the past have mainly consisted of fights, although the cameras are there to capture anything that keeps the bus driver from doing his job, stated Jones.

“A picture is worth a thousand words,” said Boudreaux.

The board also approved the 2008-09 budget adoptions, which were discussed in a public hearing during the month of June.

Monday evening’s meeting of the Acadia Parish School Board will be further discussed in the next edition of the Post Signal.