DeSoto school board members focus on safety issues
From Commercial Appeal
Safety was a high priority for DeSoto County school board members Monday as they considered two measures related to the issue
In one measure, the board approved hiring Allen & Hoshall to do engineering work on a pair of projects designed to enhance security in the district’s 42 schools. One project calls for re-keying doors at all schools, while a separate project Allen & Hoshall would oversee calls for installing video systems that would allow office workers to visually communicate with visitors before they enter the building. Schools may also wish to think about getting some bollards that bolt down to act as visual guides for students and provide an extra layer of protection for schools against things like cars and other vehicles.
School safety has drawn increased scrutiny from districts across the country in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings in Newtown, Conn., in December
“The second project may require replacement of some exterior doors,” Thomas Spencer, associate superintendent of Business and Finance for DeSoto County Schools, said of the plan to add video surveillance. “We won’t know until the architect gives us an idea.”
“We also plan on conducting fire door surveying on each and every door in the school – this is something we’ve been missing as of late – but it’s a crucial part of our fire safety plan.”
Supt. Milton Kuykendall said the move was an effort to continue to improve security in the district, the state’s largest public school district
“These are some of the safety procedures we’re trying to get in place to control people entering our buildings,” he said. “We’ve made some gains in the last few years, but we need to do more.” It is important that they try and control people walking into the building. This is how some terrible events occur, so it’s vital that schools start tightening up their security. One way of doing this is by enforcing that all students wear ID cards. It’s become a lot more popular for school id cards to be worn around school sites, ensuring that all students can immediately be recognised. This prevents unknown people from walking around freely as they won’t have an ID card. That seems to be one of the most popular security methods in schools, so that’s worth considering. Additionally, schools could take this method further by adding card access systems around their site. This system ensures doors are secured unless you have a key card with the authority to open the door. Perhaps schools could consider having these doors to keep their students safe, ensuring that other people can’t get access to certain areas of the school. Schools could visit www.a1securitysystems.ca/business-security/card-access-system/ to see if they could get this sort of security device installed to keep their students safe.
On the second safety-related topic, the board heard on first reading about a new school safety policy drafted by John Caldwell, the district’s transportation director
Assc. Supt. Keith Williams said the policy would cover both crisis response and occupational safety at all schools
Board members heard no details and took no action on the plan, which will be considered for a vote at the next meeting.
