FORTRESS SCHOOLS

HUNDREDS of schools are resorting to surveillance cameras and armed
security guards to combat vandalism, theft and drug dealing. Individual
schools are spending thousands of dollars on video equipment and random
patrols to stamp out a rising wave of property damage and crime. And the
tough new line appears to be working, with some schools saving up to
$30,000 a year on damage bills.

The push to boost school security follows a controversial drug bust at Glen
Eira Secondary College last year. Students were charged with drug offences
after being filmed by a surveillance camera in the male toilets.

Security companies are cashing in, selling hundreds of camera packages
priced between $4000 and $30,000 in the past year.

Schools have told the Herald Sun that cameras and patrols bring instant
success. Other schools employ guards - often armed - to patrol school
grounds day and night. This follows the success of a project in East
Gippsland, where Bairnsdale Secondary College employs a full-time
policeman.

Each school reported strong support from parents, teachers and students.

Wantirna, Frankston and Viewbank secondary colleges were among the schools
praising their new security systems yesterday. Frankston High's principal
Ken Rowe installed cameras to create a secure environment for the school's
lap-top computer program. He said cameras also stopped vandalism. "And
the cameras have well and truly paid for themselves," he said.

Another school in Melbourne's east spent $5500 on two cameras to point
towards the toilet entrance. This school, which insisted on anonymity, has
had a stranger lurking around the toilets in recent months. "We will put
up signs on the toilet entrance and hope to scare them off," a school
spokesman said.

Schools often want cameras in bathrooms to stop students from ripping
toilet doors off hinges, punching holes in walls and snapping off tap
fittings. But most security companies refuse to install bathroom cameras
because of privacy laws. Education Department spokeswoman Lisa Walters
said security was a school council issue. But she urged schools to follow
government guidelines and consult parents and staff before taking action.

Privacy invasion was a major concern for Victorian Council of School
Organisations president Richard Williams. "The presence of cameras in
schools also creates an ethic of mistrust in schools," he said. "I'm
against it."

But Victoria's Secondary Principals Association president Ted Brierley said
school security was a fact of life. He said several hundred schools had
already taken up the camera option. "And it will keep growing because
schools will be forced to become smarter at spending and saving money," he
said.

Several security companies told the Herald Sun school surveillance was a
growth industry. National Guardian Security manager Adam Szylvester has
received dozens of calls from schools trying to catch criminals in the act.
He has set up cameras in 20 schools and supplies armed security guards at
12. Many schools were concerned about strangers on the grounds.

Another security firm, Caught in the Act, has set up cameras in more than
60 schools. "It's getting to the stage where schools have to put in
cameras to stop losing money," director John Perry said.

Private Eye Security boss Warwick Bennett connected video surveillance to
Banksia Secondary College in Heidelberg last year, setting up five cameras
to operate all day, every day for about $6000.