JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
Back in May, a teacher at the City of Jackson-run Mary C. Jones Child Development Center was accused of hurting children in her care.
At the time, the teacher was placed on leave and Louis Armstrong, Deputy Director of the Childcare Centers, told us surveillance cameras would be installed to prevent a similar occurrence.
Today, we see he held true to that claim.
Elaborate surveillance systems have been installed at Jones, and the two other city-run child development centers. There are two cameras in each classroom to capture the entire area. The cameras are monitored from the director's office.
"We maintain each tape each day for 45 days so we're able to view, if anything happens, there's a report or complaint that comes in, we're able to go back, look at that day or time," Armstrong says.
The cameras pick up activity in the hallways and exterior property as well.
The price tag for all three systems is $75,000. It came out of the city's budget for technology. Armstrong says back in the Spring, before the accusations against the teacher, the idea of surveillance cameras was already being tossed around.
"The incident just prompted us to get it done quicker," Armstrong says. "We are able to document what goes on in the classroom. Sometimes complaints come in that are not true. We're able to document the validity of those complaints as well," he says.
The next step is to make the system accessible to parents at home and at work.
The teacher in question is no longer working for the city.
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