V•soft

News and Information

Grant High to scan visitors' identity
By Mandy M. Goodnight, Alexandria, LATia Owens-Powers/The Town Talk

Thursday, August 25, 2005 – DRY PRONG -- Students lined up inside the central office of Grant High School waiting to check in and check out. They chatted as the line grew outside of the door. Students and adults walked in and out of the office signing paperwork and letting the school know why they were there.

"It is like Grand Central Station sometimes," Principal Randy Crawford said. With more than 700 students and visitors coming in constantly, Crawford and school resource officer Lamar Briggs said it is hard to keep up with everyone on campus. (continued)

Tia Owens-Powers/The Town Talk

Grant High school resource officer Lamar Briggs demonstrates how a driver's license will be scanned to provide background information on school visitors.

FastFacts on Raptor Technologies:

Can scan a driver's license or state-issued identification card

Information goes into the computer program and checks for whether a visitor is a registered sex offender or has a warrant

Badges with photos and identification are printed for each visitor

Student badges can be scanned to keep record of when a student checks out, checks in, or if he or she is tardy

Visitors whose licenses are scanned once will not have to scan them again but will have to provide their name to the school secretary

Each time a person visits the school, the computer system rechecks the sex offender register and for outstanding warrants

Source: Raptor Technologies, www.raptorware.com

Tia Owens-Powers/The Town Talk

Lamar Briggs, a school resource officer at Grant High School, shows off a new security scanning system by Raptor Technologies that the school is using as part of a pilot program for the state.

Next week, the high school officials hope it will get a little easier. The school plans to implement Raptor Technologies' security-scan system.

Each school visitor must scan a driver's license or state-issued identification card in order to be on campus. This includes school volunteers, vendors, construction workers and electricians, Briggs said Wednesday.

Once the identification is scanned, the person's information is sent to Raptor Technologies in Houston and immediately scanned through 42 state sex-offender registries and law-enforcement agencies.

Within seconds, the school will know if a visitor is a registered sex offender or has a warrant issued for his or her arrest. If a visitor is wanted or is a sex offender, a page or text message will be sent to Briggs' cellular telephone within 10 seconds.

"We think this is just another way that we can keep our children safe," Briggs said.

Grant High will be the first school in the state with Raptor Technologies' scanning system. Rapides Parish approved Wednesday the implementation of the scanning system into two schools as a pilot program, said Assistant Superintendent Lyle Hutchinson.

J.B. Nachman Elementary School and another elementary school also in Alexandria will not start using the system until sometime after Labor Day, school officials said. The second location was not released, because the principal had not been informed.

The majority of funding for the $1,500 system in Rapides Parish is expected to come from private donations or through the Safe and Drug Free Schools program. Grant Parish is using state monies to pay for the scanning system, Superintendent Sheila Jackson said. Once the initial cost is spent then the system will cost $432 for renewal each year, Raptor Technologies officials said.

Andy Anderson of Trace Detection Services in Alexandria is spearheading the effort to raise money to fully fund the systems in Rapides Parish. "I want the kids in our schools to be safe," Anderson said. "I don't think we can do too much for our kids."

Grant Parish resident Lorrane Orr said the schools need to do all it can "to keep these kids safe and stop people from just walking into the school and causing harm."

Shirley Rachal has two children -- a junior and senior -- at Grant High School. She said she sees the scanning system as a "good and bad thing."

"I think it is good to help protect the kids," Rachal said. She is concerned about how the system will work and information will be used.

Allan Measom, president and CEO of Raptor Technologies, said the only information that goes to company is a name and birth date. Social Security numbers and addresses are not part of the information gathered, Measom said.

The data belongs to the school and is not sold. If the school doesn't want to use Raptor Technologies anymore then the information is either destroyed or given to the school.

Raptor Technologies has scanning systems in 10 states, including Florida and Texas, and in almost 1,000 schools in 90 school districts, Measom said.

Nachman Principal Rick Tison used the scan system when visiting a school in Florida. Tison said he thinks the system will work at his school of more than 600 students and catch on at other schools.

Correction: V-soft does not screen for warrants. Only public sex offender data is searched.

If you do not see the V•soft logo at the top of your screen, click [ here ] to return to the main page.
(c) Copyright 2008, Raptor Technologies, Inc., Houston, Texas