COLUMBIA, S.C. — A recent incident at an area elementary school had News19 reaching out to Midlands school districts to ask about safety protocols in place that deal with visitors to school campuses.
The incident that prompted the question "how safe are local schools?" occurred Wednesday afternoon at Ebenezer Middle School in Sumter. Two women were arrested and charged with third-degree assault by a mob and disturbing schools after they were buzzed into the building and proceeded to run down a hallway and attack three children they thought were involved in a bullying situation. One of the three children was sent to an area hospital.
News19 sent out the same set of questions to school districts in Lexington, Richland, Kershaw, Calhoun, Orangeburg, Fairfield, and Calhoun counties. We asked:
- When an individual arrives at a school and requests entry into a building, is there a protocol that should be followed?
- Are doors to buildings always open/unlocked or does a person need to be buzzed inside?
- Once inside, is there a sign-in process?
- Is the visitor escorted to their destination, and if so, is the escort an SRO officer or school official?
- Are there surveillance cameras in school hallways?
Here are some of the responses received:
Lexington One
Lexington One Chief Communications Officer Kathryn McPhail referred us to the Safety page on the district's website that deals with such issues.
Visitors are buzzed into the building by front office staff and then must proceed directly to the front office to complete a check-in process. The visitor's driver's license is scanned and, if not flagged, a temporary visitor's badge is issued with your photograph, time, date, and purpose of the visit. The rest of the school remains locked to visitors.
Security cameras recording audio and video are in each school and on buses.
Lexington One also has a Tip Line for students, parents and staff to report school safety concerns. The Tip Line can be accessed by calling 803-636-8317, emailing 1607@alert1.us.com or online at lexington1-sc.safeschoolsalert.com
Lexington/Richland District 5
Laura McElveen, Public Information Officer for LexRich 5 answers all exterior doors at LexRich 5 schools are locked. Some of the schools have main office doors that are accessible for visitors to enter the lobby, while other schools are equipped with a buzzer system that allow front office staff to let visitors into the building.
Upon entering a school building, visitors are greeted by front office staff to address their needs. School District Five uses Ident-A-Kid in all front offices to screen visitors. They sign in to the kiosk in the main office using a drivers license. The system prints a badge that visitors wear while on campus.
After going through the sign-in process, visitors are escorted to their location by a school staff member.
District Five also uses surveillance cameras in the schools.
Richland Two
Richland Two Chief Communications Officer Libby Roof says that visitors should first make an appointment to visit the school. All visitors have to check in at the front office and have their ID scanned through a visitor management system that runs a check against the sexual offender registry.
Once through the check-in process, visitors who hade made an appointment are then escorted to their destination.
Visitors showing up to a school without an appointment must go through the same check-in process, but before being escorted to their destination, the administrator/school counselor is notified.
The website says that parents/legal guardians and other citizens of the district are encouraged to visit classrooms to observe the work of the school. Policy also states that students are not allowed to bring "sisters, brothers, cousins, etc. to school with them without authorization from the principal."
Employees and school volunteers must wear identification badges. Uniform or properly credentialed public safety officers like EMTs, firefighters, on duty law enforcement do not have to check in on campus.
District and school administrators, after school or after hours program managers, district security and safety staff, school resource officers or other on-duty, or extra-duty law enforcement officers assigned to work at a school or event may issue "no trespass" notices for the school facility, delay entry of a person for cause, or ask for the removal of any such individual as necessary.
More on visitor procedures can be found here.
More on the Richland Two rules and guidelines can be found here.
