Schools plan to update visitor-security system

Until this school year, those who wanted to visit West Ashley High School simply would show their driver's licenses and receive guest badges.

Now, the school has a computerized system that runs visitors' names through a national sex-offender database and alerts the school if it finds a match.

"It was very lax," Assistant Principal Dale Metzger said of the school's former visitor-security system. "It's been a great improvement. We were kind of in the dark. It's opened our eyes to what's out there and for the need for this level of security."

Every Charleston County school soon will receive the same system. The School Board last month approved spending $147,420 of its capital budget this year to put the software in every district school. Installment and training for school employees is scheduled for the first two weeks of March.

"You need to know who's in your building and who's around your kids," said Kevin Wren, the district's campus safety coordinator.

Schools have had the responsibility of buying this kind of technology until now, which means a hodgepodge of computer systems -- if any -- are being used. The only standard procedure has been for visitors to show identification and receive a visitors' sticker.

In about a minute, the new computerized visitor- management system will check a guest's name in the sex- offender database, scan his or her photo identification and print the picture, school name, date and their destination on a sticker. It also has the capability of printing reports showing every visitor in the building, which could be useful in case of an emergency, Wren said.

The push to buy this type of technology came from district Chief Financial Officer Mike Bobby, who previously worked in Richland 1 schools in Columbia that used this security measure. More than 700 school districts nationally contract with Raptor Technologies, the visitor-management system the district selected.

In the Lowcountry, neither Berkeley nor Dorchester 2 schools have a system in every school that checks visitors' names in a sex-offender registry, but both have schools using the technology.

In Charleston, if a visitor is flagged as a sex offender, an administrator will meet with that person and explain what's happened. Parents who are sex offenders will be escorted to their destination, but anyone who is not a parent won't be allowed on campus.

For those who are regular school visitors, the system has a quick sign-in feature that allows them to have a badge printed without an ID scan each time. Principals will work with parents who don't have identification.

"I think the biggest thing for us is making sure that parents know that they're going to have to bring a picture ID into the school," Wren said.

Four schools were chosen this year to test computerized visitor-management systems, and officials chose the one used at West Ashley High. Simply having it has been a deterrent for unwanted guests; a couple of visitors have left the school building when asked to provide identification, Wren said. Fewer than five people have been flagged as sex offenders, and a few people have been incorrectly identified as sex offenders.

Some visitors have been concerned about the new system resulting in identify theft, but Metzger said the security concerns outweigh privacy worries.

"We're trying to look out for the best interest of the children," he said. "Sometimes security does take a little time, but in the long run, it's worth it."

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.