Students can now expect to be on camera when walking between buildings. This year, the high school joins 93 percent of public schools in using security cameras, according to 2020-2021 data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

The Brookline School Committee (BSC) passed the Exterior Surveillance Camera Policy on June 12, 2025. The policy outlines the purposes of the cameras and ways they are implemented. Some of the cameras were installed this September, and more will be added in the coming months. The high school’s addition of cameras is intended to increase safety for an open campus that differs from most others in its makeup.

Assistant Head of School Hal Mason said that cameras would have been helpful for campus safety incidents of inappropriate touching that occurred last year. He said the incidents were destabilizing for the community and he does not want safety concerns to interfere with learning.

“We feel that with additional ways of seeing what’s happening, we can make the campus safer and, therefore, more comfortable for everybody in the community,” Mason said.

Deputy Superintendent of the Brookline Police Department Paul Campbell said that the cameras could aid the BPD in investigations.

“It’s a good safety option to have, and there are a lot of different situations where having the cameras can be really helpful for us as a police department but also for [students] and for the community at large,” Campbell said.

According to Mason, Tappan and Greenough Streets are comparable to hallways that tie the buildings together. Mason said when administrators made the education plan for the new buildings, they recognized that they were shifting the center of campus and would need cameras as more students would be walking outside during the school day.

Senior Ethan Bracha said that with the layout of the campus, cameras could be helpful for safety and ensuring students are on their best behavior.

“Considering that it’s an open campus right on the train line…I think it is a good safety measure to have the cameras up,” Bracha said.

Mason likened the cameras to having a dean monitoring the second floor.

“It’s an extension of our adult presence and eyes on what’s happening around the campus so that we have a safe community for everybody,” Mason said.

BSC’s policy states that the footage will be monitored only during active situations and, according to Mason, only he and Head of School Anthony Meyer will have regular access to it.

Bracha said he does not worry about privacy as, in this day and age, it seems that everything is online and recorded.

“I’ve come to be comfortable with the fact that nobody has any privacy anymore,” Bracha said. “Having one other video of me being outside, walking around the school, I don’t feel that’s a crazy invasion of my privacy.”

Mason acknowledged that initially, many of the neighbors worried about the cameras capturing their yards, but with new technology, cameras will only surveil the streets surrounding the high school.

Campbell said that there are already plenty of cameras at major intersections in Brookline, such as at the corner of Harvard Street and Beacon Street in Coolidge Corner, and the ability to investigate crimes with the cameras outweighs the privacy concerns.

“The objective is to keep [students] safe,” Campbell said. “That’s really the only thing that matters.”