Pennsylvania High School to Install Several Security Upgrades
The Erie School District will be installing nearly 350 security cameras at the high school, as part of the new upgrade plan.
The Erie High School will be a new campus for 2,300 students come this fall. The building used to be a career and technical school until recently. The district is planning on making the school more secure for the new year; 345 security cameras will be installed first. 292 cameras will be located inside the 500,000-square-foot school, and the remaining 53 will be installed outside.
As other part of the security upgrades, ISD police officers will be using handheld wants to check students at random at they enter the school. And four assistant principals at Erie high will have a team of mental health and behavioral health specialists who will be assigned to a bloc of students; these specialists will be designed to get to know the students and their families.
The school district will also be installing flashing lights for better traffic control, as well as working with the Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority to ensure buses run on schedule day in and day out.
“Any time you put 2,300 teenagers in a place at one time, that is a lot of people,” said Neal Brokman, the district’s coordinator of alternative programming. “It is a school. We don’t want it to be a lockdown facility,” Brokman said. “We want the kids to be safe, but we want them to be comfortable at school. We want to strike a balance — to be safe, but this also a place of education.”
The Erie ISD safety committee will continue to consult with the Erie police and periodically review the needs for the high school.