School Officials Ask County To Provide Funding for Safety and Security Projects: Board of Education requests additional $ 3 million for secure entrances, cameras at elementary schools
...The request is for $500,000 in capital funds to start designing controlled entrances at eight schools that currently lack the security feature, which guides visitors to the main office, according to a memo by Superintendent Jack Smith. The funds would enable Montgomery County Public Schools to expedite this work so the new access systems would be in place by January 2019. Otherwise, the projects wouldn’t be completed until summer 2019, the memo states...
The biggest danger to school safety are the students who walk in everyday with a weapon in a backpack, gym bag, whatever. In nearly every school shooting, it has been a student, not a random person at the front door. The MCPS access system relies on untrained main office clerical staff to be the first line of security. Secretaries. The office staff has to look at at small pop up window on a computer screen and decide if the visitor is friend or foe. Scanning a drivers license only tells you if the person is a registered sex offender. Key word is registered. A person charged with a felony but pleads down to a misdemeanor does not have to register. MCPS doesn’t require students to wear their Student ID or even to carry it. There are no alarms on back or side doors. MCPS has a security system that makes it appear schools are safe. Dog and pony has been their best thing for decades.
ReplyDelete