The Attala County School District is making strides to enhance security measures at each school for the upcoming 2022-2023 term.
The county school board updated its crisis management plans at its July meeting, which included measures to prevent outsiders from entering a campus without proper screening. Additionally, the school board also discussed adding further preventative measures to keep students safe.
Superintendent Kyle Hammond said he along with administrators and school resource officers walked each of the schools’ campuses to identify areas that could be at-risk if an incident were to occur. Then, they determined a plan of action to eliminate those areas.
“After the most recent school shootings — of course, that has been on the forefront of everybody’s minds —we took the time to go to every campus, walk every campus, and look at some of the things that could be at-risk for us,” said Hammond. “Within our crisis management plans, we address most of those issues. The main thing we have to do as a district is adhere to those plans. One of the biggest things is keeping doors locked.”
Hammond said Long Creek Elementary School is probably the most secure campus in the district, equipped with a waiting area where parents must “buzz in” before gaining access into the hallways.
The superintendent said McAdams is set up similarly. There are fences between the school buildings and gym and fencing going down to the band hall. The fences are secured with padlocks.
“We did notice last year that all gates didn’t have pad locks on them, but we’ve got pad locks on all of those now,” said Hammond. “The only place visitors can come in is that main entrance.”
Security Solutions is currently working on badges for those visiting McAdams to “buzz in” like at Long Creek, according to the superintendent.
Hammond said the district will be emphasizing that any time a door shuts, a badge must be used to re-enter. He said there has been a problem with leaving doors propped open by teachers and cleaning crews.
“A lot of times they’ve got (doors) propped open with classes going to and from P.E. all day long. They’re going to have to stay shut,” said Hammond. “Part of our problems with keeping doors propped is just laziness. We are going to re-emphasize that all doors must stay shut and you have to badge in and out.”
School resource officers Matt Steed and Leroy Wise recently underwent a school safety training course. The two attended the board meeting and discussed their recommendation to add buzzers to all exterior doors at each campus.
“One of the things they stressed to Leroy and I at that school was that there is no “the” way to do it. There’s just a whole bunch of “a” ways,” said Steed. “Doing something is better than nothing, and we’ve got to try to do something to better protect our kids.”
Steed said teachers will sometimes allow students permission to go to their vehicle to get miscellaneous items like a calculator or a bookbag, and students will occasionally exit through a fire-exit door. The superintendent said all students should only exit the school through the main office, and a log should be kept of every student’s entrance and exit.
“On all four campuses, there are some doors that are supposed to be fire-exit doors that are not made to go in and out of,” said Steed. “You’ve got to have them by code, so that if there is a fire, kids can go out. Well, the door won’t shut back. You’ve got to physically grab a hold of it and pull it to because it doesn’t get used very much. It’s got to manually be locked. So, we came up with this idea of putting buzzers on these doors.”
Steed said the buzzers would be in a red box and look similarly to a smoke alarm. They would attach to the top of the doors with a strip attached.
“So, when that door is open, it's going to be a buzzer,” said Steed. “And that buzzer will not go off until a teacher comes with a key, sticks it in that buzzer, opens it up, and then turns it off.”
There are 11 total doors that could receive these buzzers throughout the district. Five of them would be at Ethel High School.
“The buzzer will alert teachers if that door is open,” said Wise. “If somebody hits it or tries to get in, it alerts teachers, and they will go out there and turn it off.”
A May school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde County, Texas resulted in nineteen children and two adults being killed. The shooter reportedly gained entrance through a door that was left open.
In response to the tragedy, Hammond said the buzzers should resolve any issues of doors being left open.
“That’s what happened in Uvalde. The door was left open somehow or another,” said Hammond. “This would remedy that. This would have a buzzer on there that won’t shut off until somebody actually physically shuts the door and turns the alarm off.”
“If a kid wanted to open the door to allow another kid into the campus who is not supposed to be there, this buzzer will go off,” added Steed, “so it’s a great thing.”
The board also discussed elongating fences to close off the school campuses, barring unidentified outsiders from entering. The superintendent said he is also getting a price for a remote-controlled gate entry, where visitors would have to pull up and radio the school office before office personnel determines whether to allow the vehicle entry. The remote-controlled gates would be equipped with cameras as well, if later approved.
The superintendent also asked for the board’s input on potentially adding mobile metal detectors that could randomly be placed at each high school. Hammond said the detectors could be where the students get off the bus or enter the school, if later approved. The mobile detectors could also be used at sporting events and extracurricular activities.
“What we don’t want to do is make students feel like they’re coming to a prison. We don’t want that impression for our parents or our visitors,” said Hammond. “However, we want to do everything we can possibly do to protect our children. When you think about those things, it’s not that we are trying to imprison the students, we are trying to keep those that are non-students off the campus.”
Board president Christie Moody said school violence has been occurring more frequently, and the district must do all it can to prevent a tragedy.
“It’s as true as it can be. These things are happening more and more often, and we are one day away from being a statistic,” she said. “I would hope that parents and people in the community would understand and see what we are trying to do is not create a prison-like environment but create a safe environment.”
