Dear JCPS,
Jefferson County Public Schools needs to increase security personnel and surveillance capabilities in their schools.
My children attend [High School Name Redacted] High School. On September 26 my daughter’s purse was stolen at school, along with her car. No thanks to the school or the police, we located the car, and were able to retrieve it with a spare set of keys. Her purse turned up at school minus the wallet and keys. A week later her license and student ID turned up at school – still no wallet or keys.
On Friday, October 14, my younger daughter’s phone was stolen out of her purse at school, during the football game. It was in the band room, with all the other belongings of the band kids.
We have had no luck retrieving the phone, the keys or the wallet, and are now in the position of having to replace the locks on our house, re-key the car, reprogram the key fob, and replace the phone.
There are not enough security officers at the school. I know that [High School Name Redacted] is an “East End School” and as such, probably doesn’t seem like it should have these problems, but believe me when I say it does. My children no longer feel safe in the school.
The surveillance cameras at that school of 2000 students are few and far between, and they offer grainy, low quality footage, which is only provided grudgingly. From the video footage, there was no way to tell who took the purse, even though we knew exactly where the purse was when it was taken and where the purse was found just a little later that afternoon.
There are NO cameras in the parking lot so that we could see who took the car. My child’s car is NOT the first one to be stolen or broken into in the school parking lot. Additionally, the band owns a semi trailer, which stays in the parking lot. It is continually being tagged with graffiti. Since there are no cameras, there is no way to catch the vandals. No one at [High School Name Redacted] is being punished for their crimes, and stealing a car is a FELONY!
I understand that recovering my daughters’ belongings is not going to happen. I know that this will happen again to another family, because no one is cracking down on the problem. My hope is that security will be increased, and the surveillance technology will step into the 21st century, so that when it does happen again, the next family will have better luck than we did in identifying the criminals.
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