HAND-OFF

Aug 1, 2004 12:00 PM

Robert C. Byrd High School, Clarksburg, W. Va., was dedicated in November 1995 and named after the West Virginia senator. The 189,019 sq. ft., four-year high school serves approximately 1,100 students and is governed by the Harrison County Board of Education. The school is located on a 200-acre plot and includes facilities for soccer, football, softball, a band practice field, a 675-seat theater and other features that serve both the school and the surrounding community.

PROTECTING THE SCHOOL'S NERVE CENTER

In a pro-active move to protect the school and its students, the Board of Education worked with ANSER, a non-profit public-service research institute funded by the National Institute of Justice. The result was a pilot installation selected to have the most beneficial effect on security and also to serve as a model for many of the other 27 schools in the district. Marcel Malfregeot, director of emergency services for the district, explains that, after several areas were considered, it was decided to focus on the high school's mechanical room — the heart of the school's physical plant. “We thought at first that the ideal place [to protect] would be an area of high value, such as the library, the TV studio with $200,000 worth of equipment, or the computer labs,” he says. “But then we thought if someone was trying to cause damage, the mechanical room would be the most vulnerable. At the time, anyone could enter through a door in the hallway. Because only a limited number of people actually need access to the area, it was a good place to start.”

Says assistant principal Geary Rollins: “It includes the heating and air conditioning system, the fire supression system, electrical, telephone and T-1 lines. Only the janitorial staff, the principal, his two assistants and one counselor really need access to it.”

ANSER recommended using biometrics to ensure that only the actual people who are authorized personnel could enter the area. Unlike magnetic stripe or proximity cards, PIN codes or other conventional credentials, biometric access control systems use a person's physical charactistics to identify them with certainty. The high school administrators chose IR Recognition Systems' HandReader that uses the size and shape of a hand and fingers as a credential that cannot be lost, stolen or duplicated to verify a person's identity. Length, width, thickness and surface area of the fingers and hand are measured, analyzed, and the unique features are stored in a template, which is used for subsequent verification.

The scanning process takes about 100 measurements of a person's hand in only a second. After comparing the readings with the data on the person whose identification badge is being used, it either admits or denies admittance. The HandReader is linked to a small computer in the mechanical room that keeps track of those admitted, as well as tracking attempts to get in when access is denied. This audit trail could provide valuable information if a problem were to occur. According to Principal Leon Pilewski, the mechanical room is the “nerve center” of the school. He notes that, like most schools, his school was built before security was a concern. Malfregeot says that this is the first biometrics installation at a school in the state of West Virginia.

LOOKING AHEAD

School Superintendent Dr. Carl Friebel sees the project as part of a district-wide security initiative. Malfregeot notes, “Dr. Friebel has told us that we are going to do whatever it takes to ensure their security. I've been given a grant writer who is helping to find sources of money that fund our efforts in this area. Our Board of Education's main concern is the safety of our students.”

Typically, schools also use biometrics to control access to student records or specialized or high-value equipment. “Next I'd like to see the TV studio updated,” Malfregeot says. “There we're looking at the teachers, administration and probably 40 to 50 students. After that, we might look at the library, but we're also supposed to build a new middle school where we could bring in this kind of security.”

Fred Smart, emergency services director for Harrison County, says, “They want to use [the high school] as a test area, and if everything works out and funding is secured, they could put it on the main doors to give law enforcement or fire service personnel access any time of day or night.”

Rollins notes that all elementary schools in the district have gone to electronic access control for visitors. “The middle schools and high schools are on-line for keyless entry this year and next year,” he adds.

FOR THE RECORD…

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