North Junior High School and Kennedy Community School are the first two schools in District 742 to implement the new
Raptor Security System. This new system allows faculty to do quick “on-the-spot” security checks on visitors using the visitor’s driver’s license. Since safety is one of the top priorities for the school district, starting with the 2015-16 school year, visitors to North and Kennedy will need to provide their driver’s license, state ID or military ID to the secretarial staff upon entering the building. Their ID will then be scanned into the Raptor system (every subsequent visit you’ll not need an ID). It is a one-time scan. The photo, birth date and 3-D code from the ID will be entered and stored into the system. Not to worry, only the first four digits of any ID will remain in storage for the protection of the visitor.
While information is being stored into the system, Raptor is using the barcode data from the ID to scan the national sex offender registries and custody orders to ensure the safety of students. In a matter of seconds the security system will notify staff if the person is authorized, a visitor badge is then printed with the visitor’s name, photo and the school they are visiting. This ensures that all visitors are accounted for as they are essentially “checked in” at the school. Any faculty can see who they are and where they are supposed to be. When the visitor leaves the building they are “checked out” by a staff member. This is an extremely useful feature as a report can be run at any time to see how many visitors are in the building and who they are.
If there is a visitor that comes up on the screen as a registered sex offender or is listed as a “non-authorized” person, a staff member clicks a button that sends notification to the chosen faculty to assess the situation and escort the visitor out of the building. In extreme emergency cases there is an emergency click button that is sent to the local police department.
Since District 742 is dedicated to each and every child’s safety and well-being, all volunteers will also go through this same process. A criminal background check is done on every volunteer in the district before they may start. They, too, upon the first time entering a building, will need to provide a valid driver’s license, state ID or military ID and receive a badge to wear every time they are in a district building.
Gary Ganje, Executive Director of Technology & District Support Services explains, “The plan is to have North and Kennedy pilot it this year. They will be providing feedback on day-to-day use. After they’ve used it for a while, we will review that information and make plans to possibly implement across District 742.”