Senator James Sanders Jr. Donates More Than 2,000 Web Cams to District Schools

State Senator James Sanders Jr. (D-Rochdale Village) yesterday donated more than 2,000 web cams to schools in District 29, presenting the technology to the parent leadership for the district during a meeting at his office. In the future, Senator Sanders would like to expand the distribution to include other schools in Southeast Queens and the New York City area.

“We sat and dreamed together of what we want our children to be like in the 21st Century,” Sanders said. “We have said that we want to get them ready for that future mission to Mars. Sooner or later humans are going to walk on Mars and we wanted our kids among them. With that in mind, we are going to use STEM technology, and everything else we can as a step towards that. We are going to start communicating in a 21st Century fashion.”

Sanders said the audio visual equipment could be used in many ways. A parent could get their child’s homework assignment from a teacher when they are absent from class, and teachers could show parents when their children are behaving poorly.

“Some teachers may feel bold enough to have it on all day, so that a parent can tune in at any time and see how their child is doing,” Sanders said. “That does raise a privacy concern, however, so the school has to work that out with the teacher and the parents of everyone in the classroom.”

Sanders met with District 29 Presidents' Council President, Yvette Small, the Council’s Recording Secretary, Karine Lawrence and the former President of the PTA Presidents' Council of District 29, Lorraine Bridges.

Small explained that in the days to come the council would be creating a method for distributing the cameras which would include having parents sign a consent form taking responsibility for the equipment, and stating that it would be used for educational purposes only. “We will be periodically surveying the parents to see how it is working for them,” Small said. “We will also be surveying the children to find out how it is being used to improve their education.”

In addition, Small said, the District 29 Presidents' Council will be meeting with the District Leadership Team, to discuss the plan in greater detail. The idea for the cameras came out of a discussion at the Partnership Dinner, an annual public forum that takes place in December and provides an opportunity for District 29 principals, School Leadership Teams, superintendent, parents and students to meet with their elected officials and discuss any educational needs the schools may have.

“This is part of a higher level relationship we are going to have in the days to come, where my job is to help you get the resources you need to be successful, as we jointly start talking about how we are going to get our kids to Mars,” Sanders said. “To get there, you have to have a healthy body and a healthy mind. You have to eat right and all of that, but you also have to understand math and science and technology. We want our kids to be at the cutting edge of all these things as we dedicate ourselves to creating our mission to Mars in our own district.”