In the future, when &uot;Johnny&uot; gets in trouble at school a camera may catch him.

The Natchez-Adams School District wants to install cameras on its campuses to deter conflicts among students and prevent property damage.

It’s &uot;just another way of enhancing safety,&uot;&160;said Superintendent Dr. Carl Davis, who thinks using the cameras will prevent problems because people, including students, will be aware someone is watching them.

Davis and a group of officials including district staff, law enforcement and attendance officers heard a presentation Friday from James Gracey of Progressive Systems, a Birmingham, Ala., company that specializes in camera systems.

The company’s system allows officials to monitor buildings by downloading pictures to personal computers. It also allows for quick and easy location of photographs where an incident may have taken place.

Gracey’s company got its start installing cameras for day care centers and later moved into schools and other facilities.

In his experience with the system, Gracey said he has seen the cameras record things like vandalism on campus and students phoning in bomb threats from campus phones.

It has also cut back on litter at some schools, after a school district suspended several students caught on video tape.

&uot;Word gets around, ‘they’re watching us,’&uot; Gracey said.

The district has set aside about $30,000 to purchase a camera system and would like to have it in place by Christmas, Davis added.

Installing a camera system, is just one of many projects the Natchez-Adams County School District has been looking at in recent months to improve campus security.

Since 1999, the district has drafted an updated safety and emergency plan and installed motion sensors to prevent burglaries after school hours.

It also has written a grant to hire security resource officers – or actual police officers- to secure the campus during the upcoming school year.

The district should hear within the next week and a half whether it received the grant, Davis said.

The group at Friday’s presentation meets regularly to discuss ways agencies can work together to educate children and minimize problems on campus.

The idea of developing a daytime curfew for Natchez – to keep students in school during school hours – originated during these meetings.