Dear Chief Miller
http://libpub.dispatch.com/cgi-bin/slwebcli.pl?DBLIST=cd99&DOCNUM=20898
This article is 1999 The Columbus Dispatch
'SECRET' CAMERA REMOVED FROM HIGH-SCHOOL BATHROOM
Date: Thursday, October 14, 1999 Section: NEWS Page: 12C Byline: Julie R. Bailey Source: Dispatch Schools Reporter
Police put a video camera in a boys bathroom at Reynoldsburg High School last week, hoping to catch the person who wrote a message on a wall that could have been interpreted as a bomb threat. However, the camera was removed within hours after school custodians discovered it, Reynoldsburg Police Chief Jeanne Miller said yesterday. "It was no longer a secret,'' Miller said, explaining why the camera was taken down. She said it was not in the stalls and was positioned to videotape only the head and shoulders of people in the bathroom. Some parents and students questioned using the camera. "I don't agree with the method because I believe it was an invasion of privacy,'' said Linda Rico, whose daughter attends the high school. "My daughter was extremely upset about it, and I took her side. I'm glad to hear the camera is gone.'' Within the past week to 10 days, messages were written on walls in two Þrst-þoor boys bathrooms at the school, 6699 E. Livingston Ave., Miller said. A camera was placed in only one of the bathrooms, she said. Reynoldsburg schools Superintendent Richard Ross said the messages were cryptic and did not include the words "bomb threat,'' but "it could be interpreted that it could be what it meant.'' Ross said the school now has more adult supervision in student bathrooms. Miller thinks the messages were copycats of two bomb threats written on bathroom walls at Westerville South High School last month. After the threats appeared, the principal banned book bags and backpacks and made students empty their lockers so they could be searched.
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http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/10/biztech/articles/24violence.html
Computer Project Seeks to Avert Youth Violence
Columbine Spurs Pilot Program at Schools
By FRANCIS X. CLINES The New York Times
REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio -- Spurred by the deadly rampage at Columbine High School, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is working with a threat-evaluation company to develop a computer program to help school administrators spot troubled students who might be near the brink of violence.
When the national pilot program, known as Mosaic-2000, begins testing at more than 20 schools in December, its technique of confidentially vetting and rating potentially violent students on a scale of 1 to 10 will come not a moment too soon for Steve Dackin, principal of Reynoldsburg High School.
"Columbine forever changed things for all of us," Dackin said of the school in Littleton, Colo., where two students shot 13 people to death before killing themselves in April.
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