News and Information

Eanes visitors face the Raptor
10/25/2005, Veronica Castelo,News 8, Austin, TX

Signing in is a must for visitors at most schools, but the Eanes Independent School District is taking it to a whole new level.

Years ago all you needed to roam freely around your child's school was a pen to sign in. Now, a new computer program will keep sexual offenders away from students.

"Typically when we have a guest come in we have them sign in and we give them a name badge," District Safety Coordinator Laura Santos-Farry.

Visitors to Eanes' school will have to face the Raptor, the district's technological answer to safer campuses.

"It checks for people who could potentially be a sex offender," Santos-Farry said.

Officials say the Raptor is something they've thought about for years, especially with homeland security so high in the nation's priorities.

Thanks to a U.S. Department of Education Homeland Security Fund Grant, they're finally able to afford the system.

The process is simple. They take your license and they scan it through the scanner. If nothing pops up on the screen, they type where you want to go, they print you out a badge with your picture and name on it and you're free to go.

If your name does appear on the registry, security is notified.

"We would contact the administrator on the campus. At this school we do have a resource officer so he would be contacted as well so then we would have them deal with the guest," Santos-Farry said.

Parents thinking about visiting schools in the Eanes Independent School District must remember to take their driver's licenses.
That's the only way they'll be able to enter. District officials say there will be no exceptions once the system is completely in place in all the schools.

While the process takes a bit longer then signing, in parents like Laurel Schroeder say, it's worth the wait.

"I think this is awesome. I think security is good and if this makes it easier then it's a good way to go," Schroeder said.

Only two schools in the district have the new system, but district officials expect the other seven schools will be equipped with the Raptor by the end of the fall semester.