VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: School districts in Onondaga County to install cameras on buses
Howe: Four school districts in Onondaga County plan to install camera systems on the stop arms of their school buses, with the intent of catching drivers in the act of illegally passing a bus. Various districts in nearby Oneida County, including New Hartford, New York Mills, and Whitesboro to name a few, have already had them installed, and 850 drivers were fined just last year in the county. Tanya Duckowsky, an Oneida County teacher and mother of two, said that the presence of the cameras makes her feel safer about putting her children on the bus each and every day.
Duckowsky: I feel like if you’re being watched closely, I think it would definitely help prevent you from speeding through lights that you know you probably shouldn’t be doing anyway.
Howe: Tanya mentioned that the peace of mind from these cameras specifically comes in on busy, well-traveled neighborhood streets like this one, Oxford Road in New Hartford behind me, but Jason Stefanski, a former administrator with New Hartford Schools, told me the benefit is universal regardless of the area you live in.
Stefanski: I think it’s pivotal to have safety across, regardless of if you’re in an inner-city school district, a rural district, a suburban district, there is a mandate out there to help support this, some districts need to either look at budgeting and/or types of grants to help with the cost of it but ultimately I think the safety’s important no matter where you live.
Howe: County officials are working closely with the Baldwinsville, Liverpool, North Syracuse and East Syracuse Minoa districts in hopes of installing the cameras for the 2025-26 school year, a move that both Duckowsky and Stefanski believe every district should eventually make. Gabe Howe, NCC News
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Four school districts in Onondaga County, including Baldwinsville, Liverpool, North Syracuse and East Syracuse Minoa, plan to install camera systems on the stop arms of their school buses. The intent and goal behind the cameras is to act as a deterrent for drivers to illegally pass a school bus while it is stopped during dropoff and pickup of students, as well as to make the process of dealing with said infractions more streamlined, efficient, and accountable.
Onondaga County is not the first county in New York State to make use of cameras like these, as several districts in Oneida County have had them since 2023, and several more in Broome County have been using them since 2021, and they have proved effective in these areas, as 850 drivers in Oneida County were fined as a result of these cameras just last year.
While the cameras are without doubt important for actually catching the criminals, for parents in these areas, their effect as a deterrent is already much appreciated. According to Tanya Duckowsky, an Oneida County teacher and mother of two, the knowledge of the cameras helps her feel more comfortable and confident that the commute to school will be safe for her children.
“I feel like if you’re being watched closely, I think it would definitely help prevent you from speeding through lights that you know you probably shouldn’t be doing anyway”.
Even though a majority of these incidents occur on buiser neighborhood streets, Jason Stefanski, a former administrator with the New Hartford Central School District in Oneida County, believes the benefit will be universal for any school district.
“I think it’s pivotal to have safety across, regardless of if you’re in an inner-city school district, a rural district, a suburban district, there is a mandate out there to help support this, some districts need to either look at budgeting and/or types of grants to help with the cost of it but ultimately I think the safety’s important no matter where you live”.
County officials are currently working closely with the aforementioned districts, with the end goal of installing the cameras on all of their buses for the 2025-2026 school year.