This article originally appeared in the Register-Star, and was written by Roger Hannigan Gilson and Kate Seckinger. To view the original article, click here.
As the new school year approaches, schools are looking at new security measures to protect students.
Taconic Hills is preparing to introduce a system to check for sex offenders entering its schools.
The Raptor Visitor Management system will scan the identifications of people entering the school and red flag anyone who comes up in the New York Sex Offender Database.
The system will also print out time-sensitive visitor IDs, said Taconic Hills Director of Facilities Nick Smith, and will keep a record of any visitors in the building, which could be accessed in the future,
The district was looking to implement the system in the 2017-18 school year, Smith added.
Taconic Hills Superintendent of Schools Neil Howard said the school had a system for identifying visitors, where they signed in until the staff got to know them.
When we do large performances [or] events, then typically it gets a little more difficult, he said. This system is hopefully going to address some of these needs.
We like to know who is here, he added.
The system was inexpensive after purchasing the initial equipment, which consists of a scanner and a printer, the school pays for a yearly subscription to the service, Smith added.
The system is not connected to other police databases, according to a district press release.
It is important to note that the Raptor system only scans the visitors name, date of birth and photo for comparison…additional visitor data from the drivers license is not gathered nor is the system connected to any other system, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles, according to the district.
Visitors without photo IDs can enter the building with a school staff member escorting them, according to the district.
If a sex offender is red flagged by the system, the Raptor system sends instant alerts to designated staff via email and text to come and meet the person in question to determine if theres a viable reason they’re there or if they need to be escorted off property, according to an email from Ida Yenney, a spokeswoman for Raptor Technologies, who added the schools can input other people for the system to red flag.
In New York state, there are three levels of sex offenders, with level three offenders the most likely to commit further sex crimes, according to the courts. Level two and three offenders are listed in a publicly available database, while level one offenders are not.
The Raptor system searches the publicly available database, Yenney added.
The initial cost for the system is $1,600 per school, $480 of which is for a yearly subscription to the service, Yenney said.
Coxsackie-Athens Superintendent Randy Squier said a capital project approved in the spring includes money to upgrade safety and security systems at the schools in the district.
This includes everything from fire alarms and adding more security than we already have, Squier said. We’re upgrading outdated fire and phone systems, our card access and camera systems, our proximity card…they all work, but we want to make them synchronized with each other on the same web base.
The district is working with architects to come up with final plans, but the security upgrades are one of a large list of planned improvements.
Were looking at some more advanced things like facial recognition thats one of the many things were looking at, Squier said.
More than anything, we just want to make sure it works. If you get a software package with too many bells and whistles, you might run into some issues before the bumps are worked out.
Security systems, like Taconic Hills upcoming improvements, are pretty new, he added.
Like anything else or buying a car, theres a lot of options available out there and every vendor has a different twist and set of options to go with, Squier said. A lot of stuff is proprietary and were doing our best not to go for proprietary items. We want to be able to expand in the future and make sure we seek out the best bid.
Windham-Ashland-Jewett School Board President Susan Simpfenderfer said while the district hasn’t made any announcements or decisions about upgrading the districts security, it has been a topic of recent discussion at board meetings.
Weve discussed this as recently as a few months ago, Simpfenderfer said.
Security upgrades have been brought to the attention of the board as new advancements have become available, she added.
Its definitely being reviewed, but details of budget amounts or exactly what changes will be made haven’t been decided yet.
The mountaintop board president said she expects it to be discussed again as Superintendent of Schools John Wiktorko actively considers new opportunities.
I applaud Taconic Hills for what they’ve done Simpfenderfer said of the Raptor system.
[Security] is something thats necessary today, and I never once worried about my kids safety [at WAJ],she added. Safety is always on WAJs mind, just like anywhere else, and we’re always looking at whats available. Theres nothing more important than students safety.
A new law from the state Board of Regents mandates that school districts will have to conduct four lockdown drills this year and eight evacuation drills, instead of the dozen evacuation drills formerly mandated by the Board of Regents.
The new drills were recommended by the New York Safe Schools Task Force, which was re-established in January 2013 to address school shootings, according to the Board of Regents.
The lockdown drills involve the Columbia County Sheriffs Office and the state police, but the district was also trying to get local rescue squads involved, Taconic HillsSmith said.
We’re looking into [involving] all the players that might have to be here in the case of an emergency, he said.
The timing of drills are not specifically announced, Smith said, so everyone isn’t expecting the drill before it begins.
We typically give facility and students a window when we expect to have the drill, he said usually a week.
The lockdown drills usually last between 30 and 40 minutes, he said, but did not want to get into the specifics of what happens during a drill.
The state-mandated drills do not cost the district anything, he added.
Squier said his district as already been doing lockdown drills with at least one fire and emergency drill per month in every school building, but the increased number of lockdowns does not address all types of threats.
Theres more than just lockdowns, he said. Theres different levels of threats, both from people and weather.
Squier said lockdown drills take the longest.
They’ll take anywhere from 10 minutes to half an hour to complete depending on the size of the school, Squier said. The reason they did this is because people were saying the fire drills were redundant, but we think they’re going to be taking away a couple of hours throughout the school year in addition to shelter and lock-in-place drills. We need to make sure we’re prepared for all types of threats not just people threats already in the building.
Squire said he hopes the lockdown drills become as common as fire drills.
At the same time, I hope it’s like a fire drill, he said. You never hear of a fire at schools anymore, I hope you never have to hear of a true lockdown again.
