KCK schools consider spending $6.7M for cameras in classrooms. Also on agenda: Narcan
The Kansas City, Kansas, school board on Tuesday will consider adding cameras in classrooms, as well as finally stocking schools with Narcan, a medicine for treating opioid overdoses.
But the camera proposal already is raising concerns among some teachers and parents, who worry about the price tag and student privacy.
On Tuesday, the board will review a proposal to spend more than $6.7 million to add the cameras, potentially through federal COVID-19 relief dollars allocated to schools to address the pandemic’s effects. At the meeting, the board will decide whether to have district staff continue looking into the idea, but it will not take final action.
The proposal also would aim at making it easier to livestream and record lessons amid staff shortages. Unable to fill enough teaching positions at the start of this year, the KCK district partnered with a company to hire some virtual teachers from out of state. They livestream lessons to classrooms of students on their computers, while a staff member watches the kids in person.
KCK teachers could use the cameras to livestream lessons, the proposal says. Classroom lessons could be shared with students who are absent. And students in classrooms where the district has been forced to hire long-term subs, because of the staffing shortages, could then watch the live lessons from classrooms that have qualified teachers.
“We do not believe that it’s money well spent and the efforts will not keep us any safer or enhance the educational experience,” the Wyandotte High School Parent Teacher Student Association said in an email to The Star. “We do believe, updated metal detectors at each entrance, cameras in blind areas throughout the building, along with hallways and exteriors, and parking would be beneficial.
“Imagine what the Wyandotte cluster of schools could do with $6 million! We could get alarms on all 27 of the entrances to our high school. We could get more counseling services to prevent incidents. We could invest in our school culture so students feel committed to being active at school. Spending $6 million would be a gross misuse of resources when our students and staff feel starved for them.”
About 1,600 cameras would be installed if the proposal is eventually approved.
Also on Tuesday, the school board could consider stocking Narcan in schools, amid a rise in fentanyl-related overdoses and deaths across the Kansas City metro.
In March, the North Kansas City district lost 16-year-old student Ethan Everley to an accidental fentanyl overdose. Last summer, the De Soto district lost 16-year-old Cooper Davis, who took half a pill and didn’t know it was laced with fentanyl.
The rise in such incidents has motivated more schools to stock Narcan, the brand name of naloxone, which can counter the effects of an opioid overdose within minutes. But not every Kansas City area district has Narcan.
If approved, the KCK district would enter into an agreement with the Unified Government Public Health Department to ensure Narcan is available in schools and staff are trained to use it.
The National Association of School Nurses has recommended since 2015 that schools stock naloxone as part of their emergency preparedness plans.
This story was originally published October 25, 2022 at 11:45 AM.
