Alarms signal security at East Baton Rouge schools

Apr 1, 2000 12:00 PM, Jeanne Bonner

For 20 years, Jimmy Lyons has worked for the East Baton Rouge, La., Parish School District. He has seen a metamorphosis in the alarm system used to protect the district's 56,000 students. As a foreman in the computer and technology maintenance department, Lyons is familiar with the equipment that has come and gone.

The genesis for installing a new burglar system was in 1977 when Mr. Lyons came upon information about Europlex, an alarm company based in Dublin, Ireland, which now operates sales offices in Marietta, Ga., and Toronto. He called, and a Europlex 36-panel alarm system arrived for him to test. Since then, the school district's security program has grown apace with Europlex's expanded product range. When Europlex released the 64-panel version, East Baton Rouge upgraded its system.

The East Baton Rouge Parish consists of 100 schools and employs 11,800 people, of which 4,000 are teachers. It is the second largest school system in Louisiana and serves the entire Greater Baton Rouge area. The school district serves a population of almost 400,000 people.

The district encompasses the inner city of Baton Rouge, the surrounding suburban subdivisions and the outlying rural areas. Many of the school buildings are the original ones built in the 1930s, and the Old Baton Rouge High School is on the National Register of Historic Places. The district is currently preparing for a large renovation project. Among the oldest schools are the elementary schools, often located in the inner city. It is here that the district has focused its security measures, including two schools that use CCTV.

When the district bought Europlex's AdPlex system, it was using a Silent Knight 9000 receiver, which it still uses, in conjunction with its seven original Adcor alarm panels. The Europlex system turned out to be compatibile with the receiver. The most attractive aspect of the Europlex system was its ability to integrate with the existing equipment, at a gradual rate that suited the security department at the East Baton Rouge district.

"About the time I first started, there were seven alarm systems, put in by a local alarm company. We decided to take over the stuff ourselves," Lyons says.

The AdPlex system is an expandable zone input system. Each system has an on-board serial port for communications via built-in cellular, via on-line reporting, via data networks or via satellite. It also contains a built-in communicator for central station monitoring. The keypads provide audible feedback and status indicator LEDs.

"The basic features are the keypad with the Line Encoding Modules (LEM) protection. We like the ability to have multiple zones and a description for each zone." It has provided adequate coverage up until now, especially at the elementary schools where he says a 36-zone panel is sufficient for the whole school. The Europlex Third Generation System (3GS), which the district has recently purchased, will provide significantly greater detection of intruders.

"There are 200 zones of alarm protection. Some of the sites are so large that we can take out two and three existing panels and use the one 3GS to replace them. We are pleased that the wire runs are longer; the older AdPlex systems were limited to a mile of wire. That may sound like a lot, but we are getting close to exhausting that distance. On the 3GS, in theory, you can go 128 miles," says Lyons. It has a mile of wire between each computerized node, unlike the older systems, in which the LEM modules were passive and not computerized. The district uses the Europlex system in conjunction with C&K infrared motion detectors.

After the AdPlex system was installed in the schools, the director of food services decided to install panels in the delivery and kitchen areas that are separate from the system used for the classroom and administrative areas. According to Carl Altazin, a security manager for the district, there was an immediate improvement in theft problems when the school installed the burglar panels.

The software provides an event log for up to 700 events. Each entry is logged by access code, making it easy to determine who keyed the alarm. "When a particular person turns the alarm on or off, we are able to log it by the person's access code, and then we know who is keying this alarm. Especially with schools, you have coaches coming in on Saturday or Sunday, or coming in late at night." The security staff consults the log on a regular basis and follows up with the individuals listed - usually a coach who needs to get ready for an important football game or a teacher who has forgotten something in his office.

Some of the schools, particularly the elementary schools in the inner city area, have alarm coverage in every classroom and hallway. Each zone is completely individualized and reports into the in-house central station receiver. Alzatin says the multitude of zones allows the staff to track an intruder as he navigates the school. "You can follow the intruder going from the first floor to the second floor because he is tripping the alarms," Altazin says.

Two elementary schools installed CCTV, at their own initiative, as a result of trespassing incidents. Unauthorized individuals gained access to the schools an d entered the classrooms during break times. They looted the contents of teachers' purses, including credit cards.

There are 30 cameras in place between the two schools. Most of the cameras are placed at entry- ways, taping continuously to VCRs. In addition, there are several portable covert CCTV systems that have been dubbed the "I Spy" system. There are six cameras, four recorders and several multiplexers that allow them to view four scenes at once. According to Lyons, "It has been used a lot in the past and we have caught a lot of internal things, such as thefts from cafeterias, particularly janitors, or cleaning crews who come in after school hours and pilfer little things."

The security issues that the East Baton Rouge schools typically face involve internal theft and vandalism, and their extensive alarm system targets these two activities almost exclusively. Only a handful of schools, mostly high and middle schools, currently have metal detectors. They are used daily in problematic schools and for random checks. They use a portable walk-through model and several handheld detectors, manufactured by Garrett.

Vandalism has diminished significantly, but some incidents have caused considerable damage. In one incident, students entered a high school and spent an entire weekend inside, looting. "They threw 25-inch TVs so hard they exploded. They broke VCRs in half, and sprayed fire extinguishers all over the carpet," says Lyons. The principal had been approached the previous week about installing one of the alarm panels, and he had said the school did not have any problems because it was in a good neighborhood.

The school district uses access control in special areas such as food service areas and the computers rooms. Northern Computers proximity readers and cards are used on the doors to the regular computer rooms and to the mainframe computer room. The food service areas have electric door locks. One must push a button which rings a bell and opens the door.

Another aspect of the district's security program is the use of the local sheriff's deputies. The officers are permitted to work for the school when they are off-duty.

The school district has also adapted the burglar system for other school functions. Lyons said that he adapted one of the Europlex panels to create a system to ring the bells signaling the end of class. "I worked with the Europlex guys, and they created a little chip to give me some extra timer functions and created a separate master clock. It rings bells for the end of class and controls the clocks," Lyons says.

The school district has taken delivery of Europlex's Third Generation System. As a burglar system, it offers double the capacity of the AdPlex system. It has access control features as well, including 64 doors, and up to 10,000 cards. East Baton Rouge has opted for the 2000 card-version, and is considering using it for students. East Baton Rouge continues to use the AdPlex system and will probably not install the 3GS for another year. They also still use the original Executone and Gamewell audio dis- criminators. They would like to bring the AdPlexes onto their own internal data network and hope to complete the project this year.

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