My name is Ted and I have a REALLY fun job. Yes, I’m a security camera. More specifically, the security camera who sits at the end of the third floor B wing, in case you were wondering. Now, you’re probably thinking, how is being a security camera fun? Well, technically my job is to catch violence and intruders and drugs and other things of that sort but that's just the boring part. What my job actually involves is staying in the hallway while classes are going and seeing and hearing things that people don’t realize anyone is seeing and hearing. Trust me, the halls of a high school are a hip and happening place, even in the middle of blocks.
It’s the beginning of the day. Kids are making their way up the stairs and to their classrooms. Some of them are late. Soon, the halls are deserted and it’s just me. But just you wait, something will happen as it always does. A few kids walk out of their classrooms, some to go somewhere, others just to chat. I entertain myself by guessing which student is going where. And then, at around 9:16, something happens. A tall boy walks down the hall wearing a tall hat and dark robe like a magician. He flings open the door to a classroom and shouts,
“Howdy!”
I cannot hear the rest of his speech because the class has burst into laughter and applause. One of the downsides of my hallway location is that I never fully know what's going on.
The next block, it happens a little faster. Kids aren’t even all in their classrooms when a teacher comes out of his. He leaves the door open and sits down in the hallway. If I had a neck, I would have craned it to see what was going on inside. I can hear noise, but can’t make out words. It’s loud. Moments later, a paper airplane comes sailing out of the room in the direction of the teacher. He looks at it, and then leaves it on the ground. After a bit, he heads back into his classroom. The rest of the block is quiet. The paper airplane is still there. Someone walks out by themselves. She trips over seemingly nothing and sprawls out on the floor, looking right at me, probably wondering if I saw her stunt. I hope my blinky lights convey that I did.
The third block in my day is quieter. One classroom has the lights off and the colors flicker on the screen. It’s a movie. A few minutes later, a girl comes out of the classroom. She curls up on the floor and just breathes for a few moments. Then, she opens a book and begins to read. Other classmates come out of the room and pass by her. After a bit, I hear the barking of a dog. Loud. Urgent. I scan the premises. If there’s an angry dog, a security camera should be paying attention. A teacher walks down the hall and looks around. I can tell she hears the barking too.
“Does someone have their dog at school?” she asks floor girl, “I want to bring my dog to school!”
“No, it’s in the movie we’re watching” she explains and the teacher leaves. The bell rings and the girl goes back into the classroom, if only for a moment to get her bag, and then joins the stream of kids in the hall.
Once the kids file into their classroom, they seem to stay in motion. In one class in particular the students flutter around, in a hurry for something. One appears in the doorway and scans the hall. It looks like she doesn’t want anyone to see what she’s about to do so I keep my eyes peeled. But before I can even begin to guess what her plan is, she returns to the classroom. The students appear to be doing skits. Groups of them come to the front(and into my view) move around and read from their papers. I make sure to pay attention when the girl who peeked out comes to the front. She and her group present as the others did but then that girl and two of her classmates yell something at the fourth groupmate and run out of the classroom. Laughing, they come back inside and their class claps.
In my experience, the last block of the day is the most chaotic. That’s when students are most likely to get up to some kind of trouble and also when teachers are most likely to let it slide. The teacher at the very end of the hallway usually keeps her door closed but I can see inside through a window. The window however, has limited visibility and I can’t make sense of what is going on inside. Students, and the teacher too, take turns coming up to the front and doing… well, all kinds of things. Miming different gestures, pretending to be things they are not. I bet they don’t know a security camera is watching. One comes up to the front and I’m pretty sure he’s standing on a desk because there’s no way he is that tall. He flaps his arms, pretending to be a bird, I think. He turns towards the door and sees me. I mean, people see me all the time but he sees me. Like, if I had eyes, we would have made eye contact. And he must know I’m watching because he gets down from that desk real fast.
So there you have it. A day in the life of your average security camera. Not so boring, huh?