LobbyGuard enhances school safety

In February 2005, Perquimans County Schools in NC installed LobbyGuard system-wide. The following article excerpt highlights their success with school visitor badges...

Excerpted from "Schools' electronic visitor check-in dismisses pencil and paper"
By DARREN FREEMAN, The Virginian-Pilot February 26, 2005

HERTFORD, NC At the front desk of Hertford Grammar School, a flat-screen monitor declares all visitors must sign in here.

Secretary Linda Godfrey on Friday enforced that rule with a smile while Jan Terranova checked in to give her third-grade son some medicine.

A round digital camera on the monitor snapped a photo of Terranova, a printer spat out a sticker ID tag and the machine stored her visit into its memory. After Terranova gave her son the medicine, she hit a button on the touch-screen monitor and checked out.

Its quick enough, Terranova said.

Perquimans County Schools installed the electronic check-in system at all of its campuses this year. Dare County high schools use the machines, and Currituck schools plan on getting them.

Educators say the check-in programs help thwart would-be trouble makers and particularly help stop parents who might try to violate child-custody agreements.

Its just another tool in our effort to make the school safe, said Tim Aydlett , principal at Hertford Grammar.

The ID printout includes a black-and-white photo of the visitor, a name, a destination and the date and time a person checked in.

The memory of the system stores the name of every person authorized to pick up a student. If somebody not on that list tries to pick up a child, the system alerts the administration.

And teachers will not release children to anybody who is not wearing an ID tag.

It relieves teachers of a lot of liability because they know the office has cleared them, and we can let the student go, district spokeswoman Brenda Lassiter said.

The technology is on the cutting edge of school security, and few schools in the nation have adopted it, said Ronald Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety Center, which advises schools on safety issues.

Stephens said the computerized check-in beats the traditional paper and pencil sign-in that many schools use. When a visitor signs onto a paper ledger at a front office, there is no guarantee the person is giving a real name, he said.

The computer check-in underscores that the district is concerned about its children, Stephens said. For the would-be perpetrator it says, 'Look, we have a record you have been here, and if you do something wrong, well know how to find you. Its a deterrent...

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