By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
A “soft rollout” of the newly purchased Open Gate Weapons Detection Systems is planned for April 3 at the Trojan Academy.
The Barren County Schools Board of Education members voted to purchase 10 Open Gate systems for $17,200 each at their Feb. 13 meeting. Superintendent Amy Irwin said the primary locations for the 10 units would be at the middle and high schools, but said the systems were portable should the need to move them arise, and that the Open Gate systems allowed for “more free flowing traffic” as opposed to more traditional metal detectors.
“With school safety, one thing we always want to do is make sure we get students inside quickly, safely and securely as we start each school day,” Irwin said. “It was important to our school board and to our safety team to look at this particular model because it is more free flowing — quicker to process students coming through the detection system.”
One of the district’s school safety coordinators, Lori Downs, said people might recognize the system.
“This is oftentimes the same system [they] would see at professional sporting events,” Downs said. “Open Gate also says that this is the same system that is often used by the secret service, so that’s the level of [this] system.”
“We’re excited to be able to have this,” she added.
Downs said the systems have multiple settings that would determine what kind of items get flagged. In a letter sent to district families, items like three-ring binders, Chromebooks, laptops and instruments will likely need to be “passed around the system.”
A company trainer will be instructing faculty how to use the detection systems and on April 3 the Trojan Academy students — which was chosen for its single entry point and small class size — will be introduced and taught about the system. Irwin and Downs agree there might be some initial slowness as both staff and students get use to Open Gate.
“As with anything, the reason we’re doing the soft rollout is because it may be during the learning curve a little slower than once all students, all staff are trained,” Irwin said. “Once the students know what to expect it tends to be quicker.”
Downs said these detectors were not “reactionary,” but rather were the “next step” in school safety, adding that it this is not a substitute for personal district-family connections.
“All of [these] physical things that are in place are so, so important, but what we believe what’s equally, and likely more important is the power of building relationships, the power of mental health supports…the heart-ware that we believe is equally important as the hardware,” Downs said.
The full district letter can be found here.
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