Tech tools check up on school visitors

By The ASSOCIATED PRESS

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NEW LENOX – Want to visit your child's teacher or volunteer in a classroom?

Then you need to hand over your driver's license for a quick background check in order to obtain a pass complete with photo and date as you enter the halls of any school in New Lenox School District 122.

Just a few weeks ago, the district installed the new security system, which scans a driver's license and within seconds determines if the visitor is listed on the national Sex Offender Registry and Violent Offender Against Youth Database.

The New Lenox district is among the first in the south suburbs to adopt this technology, following in the steps of Homewood-Flossmoor High School, which launched the system last year.

Visitors not flagged are issued a photo ID badge, good for only that day. The system stores the license information so returning volunteers only have to provide their name - which is rerun through the database - to get a new ID badge.

"You may not be a sex offender today but may be tomorrow," said Jason Livezey, District 122's director of technology. "It's important we do this to make sure we ID people who are coming into our schools."

But it's only done when students are in the building, not during after-school events such as basketball games, he said.

District communications coordinator Jenny Zimmerman said: "We have 5,700 students and 600 staff members. This is an added step to keep everyone safe. No one has direct access to the students."

Offenders who are spotted would be escorted out of the building, Livezey said. If they resist, police would be called. If a parent is on the list, board policy states the parent only is allowed to attend parent-teacher conferences and may be supervised.

Is the new security system too extreme?

Ed Yohnka, of the American Civil Liberties Union's Illinois office, said he has seen similar systems installed in other schools.

"The most important thing to know is that they do not collect too much information and that they do not store the information for longer than necessary. They should dump all the day's information at the end of the day and not create a record of who entered the school," he said via e-mail. "No technology will be a magic bullet."

And the technology "is only as good as the adults working in the environment where the equipment is operational," said school security expert Kenneth S. Trump, president of Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security Services. "Technology, such as visitor management systems, can be an extra tool to help educators better identify potential safety risks. Technology should be a supplement to but not a substitute for a comprehensive school safety program."

"The first and best line of defense is a well-trained, highly alert staff and student body," Trump said via e-mail.

Video cameras and buzzers have become standard procedure, regardless of school size.

And security doesn't come cheap. Tinley Park District 146 is installing a video intercom system requiring all visitors to push a button, which feeds their picture to the school office, where once admitted, they must present a driver's license.

District 146 building and grounds director Scott Slager said there is talk of adopting a system similar to New Lenox's, but for now, all parent volunteers must pass a background check.

Orland School District 135 installed GPS units on all its buses and will purchase digital radios to improve staff communications.

It's a much different world than when Bill Smith was superintendent in Alsip District 126 back in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. One of his biggest concerns was kidnapping, usually by a noncustodial parent.

He didn't start locking doors until after the 1988 incident in which Laurie Dann opened fire in a Winnetka school, killing one and wounding six before taking her own life.

"Issues facing schools today are far, far different and more complex because all of society has changed," Smith said. "In some cases, schools get carried away. They are trying to protect kids from falling meteors."

"Our greatest threat is fear. You can't let fear drive you to do ridiculous things beyond what is a reasonable standard of protection," he said, noting that secured entrances and video cameras are "reasonable."

"Once people know you have a strong sense of security, they won't try anything. It is a deterrent," he said. "It is simply impossible to attain 100 percent. No matter how many steps you take, you can't prevent someone who really wants to accomplish it and is willing to die in the attempt."

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