Hollister High campus now equipped with 95 surveillance cameras

Hollister High School installed 20 video surveillance cameras on its campus over the summer, bringing the total count to 95 cameras. The school says they are intended to provide school staff and faculty with a way to monitor the entire campus in cases of emergency, on or off-campus crimes or student altercations. 

In addition to the cameras, an environmental sensor was installed in the boy’s restroom at the Visual and Performing Arts Academic Building. 

The project was completed on July 29, according to high school district’s Technology Integration Lead Kevin Byers. The additional cameras were part of the second phase of the school’s camera system modernization project—the first phase took place in December 2020. San Benito High School District Superintendent Shawn Tennenbaum told BenitoLink the cameras were funded by “COVID dollars and general fund expenditures.” Tennenbaum did not respond to BenitoLink’s query about the project’s cost. 

The cameras will be “improving alarm response time and enhancing safety and security for students, faculty and staff,” Tennenbaum wrote in his July 20 newsletter to HHS parents, staff, faculty and community organizations. He also assured the sensor will “monitor for things such as vaping, motion and noise” and is not a video camera.

Tennenbaum said the cameras are just one way the district is adding safety measures to the campus, noting the need for a “multi-layer plan.” This plan has already been in the works with the installation of gates, fencing, lighting and natural deterrents (vines, trees, and bushes)—all providing safety to the extensive campus. 

The school’s close proximity to residential neighborhoods, as well as the Riverview Parkway and river bed, are another reason for the additional cameras, Tennenbaum said.

“We want to be a good community partner,” Tennenbaum said. He said the district will share footage it captures of any off-campus crimes with the Hollister Police Department and San Benito County Sheriff’s Office. 

“It’s unfortunate where we are with the safety mechanisms that are being implemented, but cameras are pretty high on the list,” he said. 

Many students at HHS were unaware of the cameras on campus when BenitoLink questioned them. 

HHS senior Rocco, 17, just noticed them this week. 

“I started to look at the campus yesterday and today and I started noticing them,” he said.

Rocco, who only provided his first name, said he feels the cameras will help staff in determining the causes of behavioral disturbances.

“Honestly, it makes me feel safer,” he said. “Last year and this year, there’ve been people getting jumped for no reason. It’s going to reduce the number of fights, and it’s going to help get the truth about the story and see what actually happened.”

Though the cameras will not be monitored daily, Tennenbaum said they will make it easier for faculty to  address behavioral issues occurring on campus. 

Christi Enfantino, step-mother of a HHS student, feels this will give faculty and staff more time to work as educators. When her step-daughter was accused of stealing last year, but was eventually cleared, Enfantino said there was “an alarming amount of time that they spent on investigating.”

“It was an emotional roller-coaster,” she said. “If we had cameras, nobody’s feelings would have gotten hurt and people wouldn’t have gotten mad at people. Now, if something gets brought up, and it’s something that can be brought to a camera, then the faculty can come to a solution accurately versus taking stories.”

Hollister Youth Alliance Deputy Director of Programs Jose Martinez-Saldana feels differently about the cameras. He said the Youth Alliance is concerned the cameras and sensor may be misused by faculty and staff and thereby breach student privacy.

Saying he believes that the district leadership has “the best of intentions,” he asks “at what cost are these actions being implemented? I am asking about the tradeoff of a possible sense of security in exchange for loss of privacy.”

Martinez-Saldana said Youth Alliance believes in providing safety for schools, but said,“We hear of instances where equipment like surveillance cameras are misused and even when the plan is to use them only in limited circumstances, once a recording exists, there is the potential for abuse,” he said. “We would ask the district to work with parents to discuss the use of the cameras and go from there, ensuring that there are safeguards to protect the privacy of students, faculty, and staff,” he said.

Hollister High School Assistant Principal for Safety and Student Behaviors Laurie Chavez responded to Martinez-Saldana’s concerns.  

She said the district adopted and follows Board Policy 3515, which states the Board of Trustees “is committed to providing a school environment that promotes the safety of students, staff, and visitors to school grounds” and “also recognizes the importance of protecting district property, facilities, and equipment from vandalism and theft.” 

“Our board policy notes that the district ‘respects privacy rights of students and staff and prohibits the sound recording of conversations or installation of cameras to monitor areas where students, staff and the public have a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as locker rooms, offices, staff lounges, etc.’” she told BenitoLink. “We also don’t place cameras in areas where students, staff or community members ‘have a reasonable expectation of privacy.’ Per board policy, the district complies with all applicable state and federal laws related to the use of security cameras.”

Tennenbaum told BenitoLink that no cameras have been installed inside classrooms or communal spaces. However, he said cameras have been installed in areas such as the aquatic center and the football stadium. 

“We’ll leave it at that with where they’re going,” he said. 

BenitoLink asked Tennenbaum if the district had a protocol in place if an altercation was to happen between two students on campus, where one or both of them was 18-years old or older, and if they would share camera footage of the altercation with law enforcement.  

“I really don’t know how to answer that question,” Tennenbaum said. “We want to make sure that we have a safe campus, we want to make sure that we’re a good partner with law enforcement, and I think we’ve done that.”

Enfantino, however, doesn’t feel student privacy should be an issue. 

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing, unless you’re trying to do a bad thing,” she said. “If students have a problem with them, that’s probably why. Yes, there’s a level of privacy that’s not there anymore, but what’s one more camera when there’s a campus with 3,800 cell phones—probably with cameras?”