St. Albans High installs ATM-like safety system

Jessica M. Karmasek
Charleston Daily Mail staff

Monday November 06, 2006

CHARLESTON, WV. It looks like an ATM, but it doesn't shoot out money.

The new high-tech school safety system called LobbyGuard now greets all incoming visitors at St. Albans High School.

"It looks like what I think an ATM would look like if you set it on a counter," said Principal Tom Williams.

Similar to an ATM, the safety system is equipped with a camera and requires visitors at the school to feed in a card -- their driver's license -- and answer a series of questions.

The sign-in kiosk serves as the school's newest security measure.

It produces a computerized record of every outsider's visit, including the person's name, time and date of entry and his or her destination inside the school. The kiosk also prints out a peel-and-stick nametag complete with each visitor's name and photo.

The visitor kiosk also instantly checks a visitor's name against national and state sex offender registries and other criminal databases, and it notifies the appropriate school and county personnel if a match is made.

"This is just one more tool we can use to make our school safer," Williams said.

"It's incumbent on us to do everything possible we can to dissuade people from entering the building and doing harm to the students."

St. Albans High is the only school in Kanawha County to have the sign-in kiosk.

But it wasn't fundraising or grant money that helped the high school snag the high-tech system.

Williams said the high school got the system in April, after a parent, whom Williams believes works for the LobbyGuard company, entered the school's name in a drawing for one of the devices.

"I'm always skeptical. Nothing's ever free. But it was," Williams said. "They dropped it off, hooked it up and showed us how to use it, and that was it.

"We haven't had any problems with it since, except for maybe having to add more blank name tags."

The school still keeps a paper logbook handy, but now it's mostly for students and teachers to sign in and out.

Senior Brian Lee, a student worker in the main office, said last week he likes the sign-in kiosk.
"It's cool, but sometimes I think signing on paper would be easier," he said.

Some visitors, he says, aren't technologically savvy.

"Some people come in and just look at, and then get all confused and ask, 'What do I do?' " Lee said.

Another new security check for visitors to the school is a buzz-in entry system at the main entrance doors.

The system requires visitors to push a button outside the main entrance doors. A student or staff member then opens the doors, which remain locked during the day.

The new entry system started about a month ago after the high school received a threat. School officials declined to elaborate on the specifics of the incident. Since then, they've been in lockdown mode and require all visitors to use the buzzer and sign-in kiosk.

"The kiosk is good when you have those honest people who do what they're supposed to, but it's the people who are trying to get in here to hurt the kids," assistant principal Dick Campbell said. "Those are the ones we're worried about."

During a lockdown, a school's main entrance and its outside doors are locked.

Last week, Elk Elementary Center went into lockdown mode after a student's relative threatened to take the student out of school.

The elementary school received a phone call early Friday morning from a student's relative who threatened to pick up the student without parental notification or permission.

The State Police and Kanawha County Sheriff's Department reported to the scene, helping unload students from buses and escort them into the elementary school.

The elementary school, like most in the county, does not have an automated entry system that requires people to ring a buzzer to gain entrance. Nor does it have an outside security camera.

Administrators at St. Albans said they plan to install an automated system that allows student workers and office workers to open the entrance doors from the school's main office, similar to that at nearby George C. Weimer Elementary School. They also plan to install a camera at the entrance doors.

Contact writer Jessica Karmasek at jessica@dailymail.com or 348-1796.

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