This article has been updated with more accurate information as of Feb. 19, 2020 at 10:50am 

Many students drive to school, creating a liability to one’s vehicle, especially a “nice” car. Within the last week, baseball player Josue Matos experienced the negative effects of said liability: Matos’ Chevrolet Camaro was keyed in the CTE parking lot.

 In the state of Florida, Keying a car is a serious offense, as it is considered criminal mischief “if more than $1,000 of property was damaged,” according to Corey Cohen here.

To this day, the perpetrator has not been found. The school has done everything they can in trying to find out who did it, going so far as to questioning students who park near him. 

Because he was parked near Matos’ car, senior Aniketh Guduri was called down to administration. Upon his arrival,  he was questioned, and the administration threatened to pull camera footage. 

 “I did not key the car… [but] it was really bad, the paint was chipped off, all the way to the bare metal, and then the taillights were also destroyed” said Guduri when asked to comment about the condition of the vehicle.

Further, there are rumors that many of the cameras within the Seminole High School parking lots are fake shells meant only to deter wrongdoings. This was a problem in the 2016-2017 school year when a student, in a similar situation, had his car keyed, and was told by administration that it was the students liability and there is no evidence as some cameras on campus are outdated and no longer in operation.

Dr. Rodriguez commented on the status of cameras on the main campus and wants students to know that “there are zero dummy cameras on campus, however there are some outdated cameras that operated on a previous system that no longer are operable.” He says that the school is “in the process of obtaining a quote on what the cost will be to completely modernize our system and add additional cameras.”

This does raise the question though, should the school revisit their policy of not being held liable, or invest in better security systems? Let us know on instagram @seminolenespaper or leave a comment below!