News and Information

School visitors will be subject to sex offender check
Wise County Messenger, By Mandy Bourgeois

Wednesday, October 24, 2007 – Visitors, volunteers and vendors entering the doors of Northwest ISD campuses will have to comply with a new entrance procedure soon, as the district implements the Raptor check-in system approved by the school board at Monday's meeting.

"Raptor Technologies is a software system that allows an individual's state issued ID to be scanned when they enter the building. It checks the data bases of the state's sex offenders list," said Mona Benotti, assistant superintendent for administrative services. "If there's no hit, the visitor will receive a printed visitor's badge with a scanned picture from their ID."

Benotti said that the district has studied Raptor's recommendations, as well as other district's procedure in handling a situation where an individual is identified as a sex offender.

"The procedures that we would establish would specify what happens if there is a hit. We have models to go by and we've also talked with other districts on their policy," Benotti said.

Once the system is in place, visitors, volunteers and vendors entering the campus would produce state issued identification to an office staff member. The staff member would then scan the identification through the system.

"Information bounces back within seconds. And it brings up a picture of the person. At that point, the person operating the system has to make a decision as to whether the individual matches the picture," Benotti said. "This is not a background check, but a sexual offender check."

Benotti said the district plans to implement the system at 21 sites and will install the system at any new campuses. The system will work with computer systems already in place.

"Once the system is in place, ongoing expenses would be about $9,000 next year, but will increase with each year as we add campuses," Benotti said. "The money for this was not originally budgeted, so it will be an additional cost."

The system will be used primarily during the school day, not for special events after the campuses' normal hours. The campus will revert to the current check-in system if the computer is down.

"It has some special features that we can enter into the system if we need to," Benotti said. "One of the other side benefits is that as people enter, they can be categorized as a volunteer, a vendor or a visiting parent. Our volunteers can log in and log out."

The board also discussed the possible implementation of the Crime Stoppers Program at Northwest High School.

"Currently there is a tip line at Northwest High School, but we are under the umbrella of Fort Worth," Rhett King, Northwest High School assistant principal said, adding that the tip line did not receive any calls regarding Northwest High School last year.

"Crime Stoppers allows students to take an active role in preventing criminal activity in their school. The program goal is to create a safe school environment where teachers can teach and students can learn," King said. "The person who is calling in will remain anonymous. The school resource officers will be the one receiving those calls and will investigate the crimes. Students, staff and parents can report the criminal activity anonymously without ever having to testify in court."