Walking through the halls of Fallston High School, many have questioned the new wall mounts popping up all around the halls. Well, the mystery is solved – Fallston High School is adding over 50 new security cameras inside and outside of the school.
The Office of Safety and Security recently has been encouraging schools to increase and upgrade safety due to ongoing concerns in general about school safety.
Ms. Tina Graf, the School Safety Liaison at Fallston, wants to assure the students that in no way is Fallston unsafe as we are now. The additional cameras will just help survey more areas around the school and will be used to better prepare for an emergency.
There will continue to be no audio recording, and cameras will either be upgraded with newer cameras, or added to places that teachers cannot continuously monitor like the staircases, the halls, the gymnasium for sports games, and the outside of the school, as well.
The central office came together and requested additional security cameras and “shot for the moon,” said Fallston High School’s principal, Mr. Joseph Collins, “hoping that the school might get at least a few extra cameras but surprisingly were approved for every one of them.”
Ms. Graf also played a crucial role in the increase in security as the School Safety Liaison at Fallston High School. Ms. Graf says her role is “another layer” that helps make our school a safer place to be. Each middle and high school has an assigned School Safety Liaison to take further steps to ensure safety all around the school. Ms. Graf has held this position for a year now, but this role has been in place for three.
Ms. Graf says her next step as School Safety Liaison is to better understand and help students with mental health issues and explains that she hopes to “find out why the kids are acting the way they are rather than focusing just on discipline.”
“We take safety and security seriously; we have conversations about it religiously,” said Mr. Collins. “We are all a part of keeping each other safe, so if we hear something we need to talk out loud.”
