This excerpt was taken from the Huntington County Tab, and it was written by Rebecca Sandlin.
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HUNTINGTON, IN – The way visitors are allowed inside school buildings will change, members of the Huntington County Community School Corporation Board of School Trustees learned at their regular meeting on Monday, Jan. 11.
Assistant Superintendent for Business and Classified Staff Jon Bennett explained that the new Raptor Visitor Management System requires those who visit Huntington North High School and Horace Mann Education Center to show their drivers licenses.
We saw the system as a really good tool for us to increase our level of security for students in our buildings,Bennett told the board. The number one thing it does is verify that (visitors) are who they say they are.
A scanner will run a limited background check on visitors, and the check will include the sex offender registry.
In the event that an individual comes to the school without that (identification), they would then have to speak to an administrator before being given access to the building, Bennett added.
The Raptor system can also keep a record of custodial parents as well as protective orders that may be in place against the visitor, as well as any previous issues that may have been caused by the visitor. In addition, the system is tied into Power School and records student tardiness.
Bennett said that visitors who show up on the sex offender registry or raise other flags wont necessarily be prohibited from entering the building, but school officials will be aware of the situation and can monitor the visit more closely.
Both middle schools will get the Raptor system up and running in the next few days, and elementary schools will likely have it next year, Bennett said.
Bennett added that the district is moving toward requiring staff and teachers to wear photo ID badges. HCCSC employees were required to wear them in the early 2000s, but the practice has since been dropped.
What we don’t want to have happen is someone come into the building, we not know who they are, we assume they’re supposed to be here and they should have access, he explained, because when we go through the Raptor scanner, what it does is it prints out a name tag and it actually takes their photograph off their drivers license so we know they are who they say they are.
