The Cowichan Valley School District has put cameras on its fleet of yellow school buses.
The system includes four interior cameras and three exterior cameras.
The interior cameras provide important information about mask-wearing, length of interactions, and distance between riders, and will support contact tracing in the event of an exposure.
Health investigators will be able to request detailed information about student and staff interactions on the bus.
The exterior cameras will record images of drivers who pass a school bus while its flashing red lights are illuminated for children to get on or off the buses.
Drivers who fail to stop when the lights are activated put student lives at risk.
Detailed video of infractions can now be shared with the RCMP.
The cameras were installed during Spring Break and have already recorded 22 incidents of drivers not stopping when required to do so.
Cowichan School Board Chair Candace Spilsbury says, “the addition of the interior and exterior cameras on our buses provide peace of mind for students and staff alike.”
The one-hundred-and-50 thousand dollars for the bus cams come from the federal government’s Safe Return to Class Fund.
