Published: January 20, 2008 12:32 am      

Caddo Mills ISD implementing security system

CADDO MILLS — isitors to the district’s three schools now have to bring a state-issued identification card with them in order to enter the school.

The new requirement is part of the district’s implementation of LobbyGuard — a system designed to protect students from registered sex offenders.

“It’s a way of knowing when people enter and leave your building,” said Caddo Mills Superintendent Vicki Payne.

The implementation of the system is in response to a new state law passed during the 80th Texas State Legislature to make schools safer, Payne said.

“We have to check people coming into the building that have direct access to our children,” she said. “Our goal is to welcome people into our building, but I’d also want (our schools) to be a safe place to go.”

Payne said the new software is not meant as an insult the district’s law abiding visitors, and while she knows that most visitors are not going to be registered sex offenders, the district has to apply the policy to everyone, every time.

“We wouldn’t want to offend people,” she said. “It’s just to keep our kids safe.”

District parents who are registered sex offenders will not be denied access to their children, but will be flagged by LobbyGuard.

The new machines will read people’s driver’s licenses or identification card, take a photo of the visitor, and display the time of visit and the visitor’s destination so that school officials know where a visitor is supposed to be at all times. Registered sex offenders’ identification will be flagged. The driver’s license never leaves any visitor’s direct possession.

“We’re sensitive to identity theft,” Payne said.

The visitor will then be required to turn in their car keys in the front office. On the way out, the visitor will scan their badge out, turn it in to the front desk and pick up their keys.

It’s a process that most people have embraced, said Caddo Mills Assistant Principal Courtney Painter, noting that a special system has been set up so that keys are returned to the proper owners.

“So far so good,” she said. “Especially for ones with custody disputes. We haven’t had a negative response.”

The district has also set up the system to identify a student’s custodial parent so that the district never releases a student to the wrong person, which can be especially important in custody disputes, Payne explained.

“We have always been safety conscious,” Payne said. “I don’t think you could ever be proactive enough to keep our students safe.”