MONTGOMERY CO., Ky. (ABC 36 NEWS NOW) — As the school year continues in Montgomery County, students are back in class but this time, it looks much different. Backpacks are now banned in some schools, all in effort to increase security. In an effort to keep students safe at school, Montgomery County Schools are looking to become more proactive. “This…
MONTGOMERY CO., Ky. (ABC 36 NEWS NOW) — As the school year continues in Montgomery County, students are back in class but this time, it looks much different.
Backpacks are now banned in some schools, all in effort to increase security.
In an effort to keep students safe at school, Montgomery County Schools are looking to become more proactive.
“This is just one solution that we’re looking at to improve our complete comprehensive school school safety model in our plan,” says Chief Of Police Chris Barrier, with the Montgomery County School District Police.
Montgomery County Schools are looking into a security system with Centegix called ‘crisis alert.’
“The idea with these crisis alert badges is to give every eye and ear in the school, every adult who has the ability to wear this badge and notify law enforcement of a potential crisis incident. It really gives them the ability to reach out and cut down on the line of communication to keep our kids safe in the building, allow us to do the the law enforcement response that we might need to do,” added Barrier.
Saving time to save lives, the system has been implemented to at least one school district in Kentucky.
“The beauty of this of this equipment is that it’s independent of our Wi-Fi and our power sources as well. So if the Wi-Fi goes down, the power goes down, the the source stays intact,” he explained.
Barrier says its about prioritizing kids no matter what, “I’ve got an SRO in every single school building in our community. Our policies and procedures and protocols are in place. This is really an infrastructure upgrade that helps make it more robust for the school safety model and plan in our district.”
At the meeting on Tuesday, more options were discussed to help keep students safe.
“If you’re reactive, you’re operating from a place of weakness where leverage is working against you. If you’re being proactive, there’s no leverage there. It’s really, it’s about your mission and what you’re trying to accomplish,” he said.
The potential cost of the system could cost the district about $460,000 over five years.