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Chico Unified pauses Verkada camera rollout, forms stakeholder committee and bans facial-recognition use
Summary
After hours of public comment warning that a recently awarded $1.9–$2.0 million surveillance contract risked student privacy, the Chico Unified board voted unanimously to pause deployment, create a community-student-staff committee to set features, and direct staff to draft a policy banning facial-recognition and AI models in surveillance.
After a packed public hearing in which students, parents and teachers criticized a recent district contract to refresh campus cameras with Verkada technology, the Chico Unified School District board on Thursday voted to pause deployment of the new system, create a stakeholder committee to recommend permissible features, and direct staff to draft a policy banning facial-recognition and other AI-modeling in surveillance.
"Safety should never come at the cost of privacy, trust, and or transparency," said student Anthony Rodriguez, who spoke during public comment. "The proposed AI-enabled camera system would actively analyze students throughout the school day. As minors, we do not have the ability to not be at school." (Anthony Rodriguez, student.)
Board members heard a 40‑minute presentation from district staff explaining the rationale for replacing an aging Milestone/Pivot3 system with a cloud-enabled, subscription-backed Verkada package. John Vincent, the district’s director of technology, said the current…
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