Schools use tech to beef up security
Technology isn't a panacea, experts caution--but it might
help
From eSchool News staff and wire service
reports
October 11, 2006
JENKS, OK. Though experts agree that
technology isn't a cure-all for the latest wave of school violence, some
school systems have beefed up their security measures recently with the
help of high-tech solutions.
Visitors to Oklahoma's Jenks High School, for instance, soon must pass
by a new high-tech school safety tool called LobbyGuard.
In an effort to strengthen school security, LobbyGuard's
visitor-management kiosk can instantly check all campus visitors against
national and state sex offender registries and other criminal databases
and notify appropriate school and district personnel if a match is made,
its makers say.
"One of the most challenging areas for most of the nation's schools is
the monitoring of who is coming into our children's buildings," said
Roger Wright, executive administrator of school safety and emergency
preparedness for the Jenks Public Schools.
LobbyGuard, made by LobbyGuard Solutions LLC, reportedly is used by
hundreds of public and private schools and school administrative
facilities across the United States. The demand for visitor background
checks has come from school systems themselves, LobbyGuard says, even
before states started passing the Jessica Lunsford Act. The act,
commonly known as "Jessica's Law," requires schools in those states to
screen campus visitors, volunteers, and vendors against criminal
databases.
Although Oklahoma does not currently require background checks, Wright
said he believes this security measure should not be overlooked.
"The LobbyGuard kiosk will improve the Jenks school district's ability
to more accurately ensure that an individual coming into a school is not
a registered sex offender, does not have outstanding warrants for his or
her arrest, and does have custody rights to the specific student he or
she would like to pick up," he said.
LobbyGuard will be part of existing Jenks security measures that include
physical building design, limited access points, a campus police
department, and interior and exterior video surveillance.
In New Jersey, the Freehold Borough School District has installed an
iris-scanning security system in its three schools that allows parents,
school staff, and others registered in the system to enter locked
buildings by staring into a camera.
The initiative is the second of its kind funded by the U.S. Department
of Justice (DOJ), which is using the projects to study the feasibility
of the technology in schools and to test the public's reaction. The
biometric equipment is similar to what the federal government has tested
in its registered traveler program, which allows frequent flyers to
avoid lines at airport security checkpoints (see story:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=6148
 ).
And Virginia's Prince William County Public Schools are piloting a new
type of software that aims to permit communication across a wide range
of devices that school systems already have--including cell phones,
two-way radios, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and even video
cameras. If the software works as intended, it could improve emergency
preparedness by creating secure, multi-platform lines of communication
between school campuses and federal, state, and local first responders.
The district's purchase of the CoCo protocol software from CoCo
Communications Corp. was funded by another DOJ grant (see story:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showstory.cfm?ArticleID=6086
).
Editor's Note: For more information on how schools are using high-tech
tools to help keep their students and staff members more secure, watch
for our Special Report on School Safety in print and online in January.
Links:
Jenks Public Schools
http://www.jenksps.org
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