Another School Gets Safety Upgrade
It is always good to hear that more and more schools are upgrading their safety measures. After all, even if there have been no considerable threats to an area, who is to say that no incident will ever happen? That is how the citizens of Fort Payne and Dekalb County think and it is quite understandable that they are very excited about the grant given to Fort Payne Middle School that allows them to upgrade their security.
The Times-Journal reports:
We were pleased to see Fort Payne Middle School recently received a grant that takes school safety to another level.
With the help of the Fort Payne Police Department and School Resource Officer Steven Whited, FPMS will have the technology to perform an instant background check on visitors to the school. No longer will signing a visitor’s log be enough. Instead, a computer will print out a visitor’s pass with a photo ID and check the national database for criminal background. It will also alert the principal and local police if a registered sex offender is in the building.
The concept is a great one and we applaud both the police department and the school system with moving forward. Such a unique and state-of-the-art security feature is a welcome addition. We certainly hope the school board is planning for ways to both keep the system at the middle school after the grant runs out and to install it in our other buildings. After all, there really cannot be a price put on the safety of our students.
Though some people in areas where more high tech measures are being employed may look down on this upgrade, I think that baby steps are the key to ensuring safer schools. After all, since Fort Payne has not had serious threats, this level of security should be enough (maybe for now?).
One thing that struck me in that news report is this line:
It’s unfortunate our schools have been forced to become as concerned about security as they are about education.
Indeed, there used to be a time that the major concern was to provide the highest quality of education possible to our children. These days, though, in order to be able to provide an excellent educational experience to our children, we also have to consider other factors such as school safety. After all, how can our children learn in the best possible way if their physical safety is at risk?
It is saddening to realize this but that does not make the situation any less true.
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Posted on July 4th, 2008 by Deborah J Thomas
Filed under: Administrators, K-6, News, Parents, People Involved, School Grade Level, School Safety Issues, Security, Students
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