Ninety-six new security cameras are being installed throughout Stuyvesant High School in an effort to combat vandalism and crime. Eighty-four cameras will be distributed throughout the 11 floors of the building and 12 cameras will be positioned outside the building.

Levinson and Sentoro Electric Corporation, based in College Point, Queens, is removing the previous 44 cameras and installing the new cameras. According to Assistant Principal Technology Edward Wong, the tentative completion date is Thursday, April 1 and the final completion date is Sunday, May 1. As of now, the installation on lower floors is nearly complete, but installation on the upper floors and school perimeter is still in progress.

“[The Levinson and Sentoro Electric Corporation] went through with us where we wanted to place the cameras,” Wong said. “It’s a whole new interface.” In fact, none of the old cameras will be kept because they are incompatible with the new system.

The new cameras will be paid for by a federal grant worth 1.459 million dollars and will not affect the school’s budget. Although federal money is in short supply, grants have been given to schools across the city because of previous acts of vandalism. In addition to Stuyvesant, Public School 266, Intermediate School 208, Richard R. Green High School of Teaching, and Public School 89, amongst others, will be receiving new security systems.

According to Principal Stanley Teitel, the federal grant was the main reason for installing the new cameras. “We are fortunate we don’t have a major problem with vandalism,” Teitel said. “But the grant was offered to us and it seemed like a good deal.”

The additional cameras will allow the administration to keep an eye on activity inside the building, as well as around the building’s perimeter.

The cameras are “watched somewhere else, but we have access to them,” Teitel said. “They are mostly a precaution, to be reviewed in response to student or faculty reports.”

Wong assures students that the cameras will not have adverse effects. “No one in the building is going to sit around all day watching the 96 cameras,” he said. “It will be a just-in-case system.”

However, some students have expressed concerns about the new cameras.

“I know we’ve had a lot of problems this year with arson, but we don’t have so much vandalism in the school as to have the administration watch our every step,” junior Lionel Jensen said.

“The cameras may be free but they are completely unnecessary,” senior Petros Skaliarinis said. “They are a total invasion of privacy.”

Other students welcomed the increased security presence.

“I used to bike to school last year, but I had some trouble with bike parts being stolen while I was in school,” junior Luca Senise said. “Having a security camera watching the bike rack would definitely make me want to start riding to school again.”

“The cameras won’t really be a major problem for me,” sophomore Kristopher Lulaj said. “As long as students don’t do anything wrong, they won’t be affected by the cameras at all.”