School Security With Class

Jan 1, 2007 12:00 PM

School security concerns have created a whole new meaning for the word CLASS at Greencastle-Antrim elementary and primary schools in Pennsylvania.

The schools have developed a $6,000 program called “Children Leaving a School Safely,” or CLASS, which creates “simpler and safer sign-out” of grade school children at the end of the day, Pa. Director of Elementary Education Greg Hoover tells the Waynesboro Record Herald.

“This is a safer way of getting students out of class,” Hoover tells the newspaper. “Our town's growing and changing and we know we need to up the ante on security.”

When the schools could not find the right technology to fit their needs, they created their own. Hoover unveiled the elementary school security kiosk after a year of developing the software with Ameritech of Hagerstown, Pa.

About 10 percent of grade school children are signed out every day, Hoover says. The staff at both grade schools oversees anywhere from 50 to 70 parents who enter the school to take children out of class for various reasons.

But it's difficult to determine if the child ends up leaving with the right person. Hoover says sign-out lines often back up, and some parents or guardians are better known than others.

“We had parents complain that we didn't check IDs,” Hoover says. “Our realization was that we have to do something to make it safer. (Ameritech) took our idea and developed a program to let us use it through technology.”

School administrators spent about a year creating the CLASS system with Ameritech. It issues each parent a PIN number to type into a computer near the school office. A security camera faces the computer as parents then choose which children are leaving.

The system then prints a list of signed-out students for administrators.

Hoover says the parent is in charge of the PIN number. They can give it to whoever they want and change it at any time.

CLASS keeps unauthorized people from entering the school and speeds up the sign-out process in a safe manner, Hoover tells the newspaper. The system started on a trial basis in December with 25 families from both the elementary and primary schools.

Although the program does not eliminate all problems, Hoover says the biggest glitch is usually over custody of children. One parent may not give the PIN number to another, he says.

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