by Linda L. Briggs

Livermore spent many hours with security guards and administrators, witnessing the problems they faced and helping to implement Ysleta’s new security system. “I saw the fights, I saw the drug deals, I saw the vandalism,” he says. “I saw it all because I was on the campus with them.

[It’s] a very small amount compared to the cost of replacing a computer lab due to vandalism.

Rosario Dickerson, Ysleta ISD, on the per-student cost of the district’s new security system

A Variety of Options

Handheld devices are only one element of a modernized ecurity system. According to Rich Combs, security practice team lead with CDW-G, schools face a variety of choices in security products, including cameras, identity devices such as scanners or radio frequency identification (RFID) chip readers, and back-end software to collect, store, and provide reporting on security information.

Since a school’s largest security expense is generally the cost of personnel, adding cameras in select locations can extend a school’s security budget at a lower cost than simply hiring more security guards. If the devices are coordinated on a network, someone in one hallway with a handheld unit can access the network and check the video from a different spot on campus. “The officer can punch in to the network and see another hallway, or another area of the building,” Combs says. “That can maximize the presence of one person.”

An advantage of wireless security cameras, which can be as small as a person’s thumb, is indeed their wirelessness: They don’t require wires to connect them. Some can use a nine-volt battery, Combs says, which eliminates the need for running a power connection to each camera. In placing cameras, he suggests that schools consider their potential to act as deterrents. While it’s relatively easy to hide a small, wireless camera, sometimes making security cameras visible can be a better strategy, since they discourage bad behavior simply by their presence.

Another security option is a scanner with software that checks the scanned information against a database. This can be used for allowing access to buildings or labs, confirming the identity of a student, or quickly taking attendance electronically in class. But Combs says that because such systems require that students remember their ID cards, they’re generally used only in the upper levels of high school.

A third option is instituting a badge system that can be tied to handheld devices carried by security guards, who can scan a badge with a PDA device to confirm a student’s identity and schedule, for example.

In the end, security systems needn’t only be about breaking up fights in high school hallways and preventing vandalism. Ysleta, which is now extending the security system to its middle schools, hopes to eventually use the same system in its elementary schools as well, to address security issues such as using photo authorization for individuals who come to pick up a particular child after school.

Linda L. Briggs is a freelance writer based in San Diego, CA.

page 3 of 3, Courtesy of The Journal