CAMERAS ON SCHOOL BUSES

Surveillance cameras are becoming fairly common on school buses in Missouri and Kansas. It is a sad commentary, but schools don't create disciplinary problems. They just have to deal with them. These discipline problems start, and ultimately must stop, at home.

The Kansas City School District is the latest to install cameras on 100 of its buses. Black boxes will be installed on all 1,300 buses serving the district, but students won't know which black boxes contain a camera and which don't.

The Jackson School District already has some cameras on its buses, and the Cape Girardeau Board of Education is discussing the possibility of putting cameras on the buses with the most discipline referrals.

It is hard for bus drivers to watch the road if they're constantly looking in the rear-view mirrors.

The cameras would provide documentation on trouble-makers that shouldn't be on the bus in the first place. They could become just another weapon in the fight to separate the students from the hooligans.