News and Information

Software keeps tabs on school visitors
By NICOLE JOHNSON, August 28, 2005, St. Petersburg Times, FL

TARPON SPRINGS - Clipboard sign-in books and generic visitor name tags are a thing of the past at Tarpon Springs Elementary School.

Last week, the school began using the V.Soft system, a Web-based software system that scans a driver's license and compares the data to state sex offender and sexual predator databases. It then generates an adhesive name tag with the visitor's picture and the school's name.

"Safety is No. 1 in my book, so we want to make sure that anyone coming through those doors that needs to be monitored is," said Tarpon Springs Elementary principal Leah Pappas.

The technology works like this: when a visitor enters the school, his or her driver's license is swiped through an optical scanner plugged into a computer linked to the Internet. The scanner uses the name, date of birth and license number on the front of the card to search 42 states' sex offender registries.

Raptor Technologies, the Houston company that created the system, maintains those registries in one database.

The results of that search are shown on the computer screen. A name tag featuring the person's name, date and time of the visit is printed. The visitor's picture and destination also are on the adhesive tag.

The equipment and access to the database cost about $1,500.

Pinellas school officials are using Tarpon Springs Elementary as a 30-day pilot site, said school district spokesman Sterling Ivey.

"We're trying to determine if it's useful and customer-friendly, or does it tie up the people coming into the school," Ivey said. "The next question is, how much will it cost to have the same system in place at every school?"

Raptor began manufacturing the technology in 2002. V.Soft is now being used in 900 schools in 11 states, said Carol Measom, marketing director. s

"After 9/11 it was important to know who was in the building," Measom said. "We realized there was a market in K-12 schools to figure out who was on the campus. . . . They've got a lot of issues to deal with daily, so they just need to know who is in and out of the schools."

Mike Kazouris, resource officer at Tarpon Springs Elementary School, spotted the V.Soft technology at a conference in July. Kazouris told Pinellas school superintendent Clayton Wilcox about the software during a recent school visit. Wilcox agreed the technology seemed promising, Kazouris said.

"At any given time, I can see who's on the campus," Kazouris said. "Before, I had to rely on a sign-in sheet."

Those sheets leave room for error, he said, including people forgetting to sign out and the possibility of someone using a fake name.

Tarpon Springs Elementary is the first in the county to use the software. Lake Myrtle Elementary School in Land O'Lakes began using the technology in April. Four schools in Sarasota have piloted the technology.

Ivey said the efficiency of the system makes it attractive.

"Most people have a driver's license, so we can do a very quick immediate check," Ivey said. "If someone comes on campus, it's not like we have to roll their fingerprints and wait 24 hours for a background check to come back."

V.Soft sends a text message to the school's resource officer if a person is identified as a sex offender. That person may still be given access to the school, but would likely be closely monitored, Kazouris said.

"Just because they come up as a sex offender doesn't mean they'd be denied," Kazouris said. "The front desk would wait until an officer showed up and that officer would determine the person's status and we'd make provisions."

The system can also be programmed to check for other information, including restraining orders and custody injunctions.

Kazouris presented the technology to parents at Tarpon Springs Elementary's open house on Tuesday.

Michelle Brewster, who has two daughters at the school, said she never felt her girls were unsafe, but she isn't complaining about the extra layer of safety.

"I've always felt good about having them here," Brewster said exiting the school Friday with the V.Soft name tag on her lapel. "But considering everything, it's still a really excellent program."