$2M Security Overhaul Nearly Complete in Belleville Schools

Belleville school security has evolved far beyond hall passes and sign-in sheets.

The Belleville Public School District announced it has nearly finished a $2 million school security plan including armed safety officers and technological changes.  

After the shooting in Newtown, Conn., the district hired a director of school security. Within five weeks armed retired law enforcement officers were stationed in the district’s nine schools.

The district installed telephones in classrooms with voicemail boxes for teachers.

 This summer, the district installed a state-of-the-art network design, security and surveillance system. Nearly 1,000 cameras capable of tracking people will be installed in schools. In addition, the schools will be making use of Radio-frequency identification technology, where small tracking chips are embedded in items like identification card to track wearers movements.

RFID has attracted controversy in its applications in schools.

As the International Business Times noted in an April 2013 article, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have objected to RFID use on privacy grounds. In addition, a Texas student filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against a school district using RFID badges for religious reasons, saying the bar codes on the cards represented the “mark of the beast” foretold in the Book of Revelations. 

Nonetheless, the measure has not encountered any resistance in Belleville. When new school security measures were presented to parents at a February school board meeting, attendees did not raise objections. 

School officials said the new measures put Belleville on the vanguard of school security and that student safety was worth the price. 

"We are investing over $2 million from our operating budget for these security measures,” Belleville Board of Education Trustee Joseph Longo said in an email. "There hasn’t been any state or federal aid for these projects to date, but the safety of the faculty and students is our responsibility and we take it very seriously. I never want to be in a situation where I have to explain to a parent that a tragedy may have been avoided but there was no funding available to keep their kids safe.”

In February, the school board hired former Belleville police captain and mayor Bill Escott as school security director.

The Mine Hill, NJ security group Clarity Technologies Group is installing the security technology. Clarity Vice President Martin Okun believes the security measures will a model for other districts concerned about security. 

 “As we see more and more violence in schools every day, we strive to find ways for our children to learn without fearing for their own safety,” Okun said in an email.