CITY HALL. New surveillance cameras that have cost the School District of Philadelphia a whopping $1 million will allow officials to see virtually everywhere inside South Philadelphia High School in the wake of racial violence there last year, Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said yesterday.
Ackerman, who testified before City Council during hearings on the district’s $3 billion budget, said the cameras’ only blind spots are the school’s bathrooms, where no cameras are.
Racial tensions at the school escalated in December when several Asian students were assaulted outside the school by a group of mainly African-American students. Last month, another Asian student was allegedly assaulted in the bathroom, but officials said the incident is unrelated.
