Security firms inundated with demands from educational campuses

State-issued identification cards are part of a visitor management system being implemented by the Greenville school district. Anyone entering a campus will be required to show a state-issued ID card. The magnetic strip on the card will be scanned on-site and compared to a national database of sex offenders. There will be no exceptions to providing this ID card before being allowed on campus.

A new notification system in the Beaumont ISD is capable of sending both emergency and non-emergency messages. The Web-based service replaces an older notification service that methodically called families in the district but it often took all day to accomplish the task. The new system is capable of making 6,000 calls per minute. The Beaumont ISD system can also be used to alert parents if their child is not in classes on any particular day or if students on a school trip are going to be late in arriving home.

The Carroll ISD provides a good example of a school district that is attempting to cover many critical areas. It has a new alert system that will be used primarily as a way to contact parents when emergencies arise - fires, flooding, electricity outages, water line breaks or bomb threats - that could result in either a lockdown of the school or an evacuation. Contacts can be made by phone, e-mail or text message. Along with this, the school district has also installed security technology with a proximity card system that allows keyless entry into campus facilities and a number of installed security cameras.

Many school districts have installed video cameras to record activities inside school buses. In the Waco ISD, school officials approved new technology to replace old VHS recorders with digital video recorders (DVRs). While the old recorders showed only one wide interior shot, the new system will record four different shots from different angles on the bus. Recorders focused on the steps allow district officials to know who got on - and off - each bus. One camera is focused on the driver. School buses could soon be equipped with GPS tracking, so that school officials will know where their buses are at all times.

Although we prefer never to think about situations involving firearms on school property, the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado and the random shootings at Virginia Tech are reminders that such incidents can happen anytime, anywhere. As a result, a training course was offered by the Denton Police Department. The objective of the session was to discuss and review best methods of taking control in emergency situations. Officers from Denton, Weatherford, Burleson, Grapevine and other school districts participated.

Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches recently approved an alert system that includes an outdoor warning signal and a notification process that sends messages to students via e-mails, cell phones and networked computers. Lamar University has also installed an emergency alert system that utilizes both phones and computers. Some security alert firms are reporting 200 percent increases in sales this year. Safe learning environments may become even more costly for educational institutions throughout the country.