BCSD exploring additional school safety measures

Jul. 23—What doors should never be propped open? How fast can you drive in a school zone?

At Tuesday's monthly Baldwin County Board of Education meeting, such school safety topics were discussed at-length as the 2022-23 school term approaches.

"We just saw the report that came out a couple of days ago from the incident in Texas," said Superintendent Dr. Noris Price. "We never want an incident like that to happen on our watch. We take every measure necessary to make sure our staff and students are protected."

A delegation from the Baldwin district attended a state safety conference, Price said, and learned some new safety measures. She said the system's safety plans are updated on a yearly, and that process is ongoing with principals involved.

"The safety conference was outstanding," said Deputy Superintendent Matt Adams. "Talked about different ways we can make our schools safer.

"The two major things we want to think about are prevention and response. Prevention is obviously the key. There's no compromise in safety. Convenience is the enemy of safety. Saying we can't fund it is the enemy of safety.

"When you think about prevention, we need to identify warning signs. As you watch the news, it's all about warning signs. If you dig a little deeper, there was always a warning sign. When the warning signs are there, what are we doing to prevent further catastrophe? We are currently looking at multiple proactive measures. They are related to behavior threat assessment solutions, mental health resources and finally suicide risk assessment solutions."

Another step involves crisis alert systems, and Adams said they are looking at five to six demonstrations.

"How are we going to respond if something happens?" Adams asked. "Some systems involve panic buttons, a lanyard. Dr. Price talked about audio enhancement. Also, we are researching customizable anonymous alert systems. That's 'see something, say something.' Maybe (somebody in the community) sees something that happened over the weekend and they want to alert the administration, 'You need to keep your head up. This could be brought into your school Monday morning.'"

Customizing, Adams said, prevents any abuse of the system.

Price said one system takes over all devices — phones, laptops — to pop up an alert and make an announcement to specific people, give them tasks, and alerts the county of a lockdown. She said the goal is to bring something they wish to implement before the board no later than October.

Board member Wes Cummings asked if the existing camera system is set up to view every exterior door. Technology director Brian Daniel said they "pretty well" have every door covered. Cummings then asked if every door is supposed to be locked, if a door is propped opened is there an alert for that scenario.

"The cost of that was off the chart," said Daniel. "The other thing they say about that is kids will go to the door, push it open on purpose to send a false alarm. They said the hassle and headache was not even worth trying to maintain the system and the extensive cost."

Cummings then brought up possible alerts if a door stays open or even unlocked for several minutes for any particular reason. Price said it would be vigilant to educate the staff and students about the importance of closing doors, not propping them open and keeping them locked. She also had maintenance director Bruce Knighton check all doors to make sure they are working properly.

"There's no need to prop doors open," said Price, adding that counts for custodians. While there may be deliveries made, such as for the nutrition department, she said they need to minimize those accesses to their buildings.

"My people have been instructed if they find a door open, close it," said Knighton. "Instead of worrying about who left it open or reporting it. They've been instructed to never leave an unoccupied door open. Like if we wedge a door open to move furniture in, we make sure we don't walk away with the door propped open."

On the question of the lack of resource officers from local law enforcement, Price said the primary schools share a resource officer and the board approved in the budget hiring security monitors to support those schools that do not have a resource officer. She said the security monitor does not carry a weapon.

At the June board of education meeting, representatives of the Interquest K-9 program gave a presentation of what they offer school systems. Price said the middle and high school principals believe this will support their safety measures, so they will proceed with entering an agreement with Interquest beginning this school year.

Maj. Scott Deason, who oversees the uniform operations of the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office, spoke to the board and audience members about emergency kits for locked school doors and school traffic zone safety cameras.

The Milledgeville Police Department monitors RedSpeed photo enforced cameras on Highway 49 in front of Baldwin High School and Elbert Street near Georgia Military College. The Baldwin County Sheriff's Office monitors one on Log Cabin Road near the entrance to John Milledge Academy.

"There are a couple of reasons we're doing it," said Deason. "Everybody says it's just for the money. They only operate during school time. They only issue citations to violators during the school day."

Deason said the sheriff's office plans to put one by Midway Hills Academy on Carl Vinson Road. The Log Cabin Road cameras began operating Feb. 11 after a 30-day warning period. For a new camera, Deason said the request has been submitted to the Department of Transportation, and now the sheriff's office is waiting for RedSpeed to let them know when they can begin installing them. After they are installed, there will be another 30-day warning period.

"These cameras tie into a statewide network that can be connected to in-car computers for my deputies, so anytime a child is missing or we are looking for a violent criminal, suspects, burglars, whatever, it pings in our car," said Deason. "It's more than just the proceeds the Sheriff's Office gets off of it. Cameras like this would cost of 10s of thousands of dollars per location.

"We have to embrace technology. I'm 15 deputy sheriffs short. That's 25 percent. Macon's 150 short. The State Patrol is 400 short. I wish I had eight to 10 deputies working every shift."

Drivers caught by the RedSpeed camera going 11 mph or more over the posted limit receive a citation, $75 for the first offense and $125 for the second. Is there a penalty for not paying this fine? Deason said if someone chooses to not pay it RedSpeed can put a hold on the driver's decal to where the driver can't get it renewed. He said getting pulled over for an expired tag will go against your insurance and license, whereas these speeding citations — no matter how many one gets — would not.

"We can't put (the fine money) back into the general fund," said Deason. "I have to use the proceeds we get from the company for equipment, school safety training and traffic training. Since the tragedy in Uvalde, I have purchased from the proceeds a kit for every day shift in my investigative division that will breech a school door even if you are on lockdown (should the offender already be inside).

"This will allow us to get to (danger) quicker."

Milledgeville Police Chief Dray Swicord told The Union-Recorder that since March 1, 2021, on Highway 49 east bound, 2,711 summons have been issued, west bound 5,095 summons, on Elbert Street north bound 954 summons and south bound 1,764 summons. The total amount collected is $257,540.11.

"We have spent out of that amount $6,766.63 for safety material, positive promotion material, car seats, stop sticks, camera for traffic officer, and our biggest purchase will be laptop computers for patrol vehicles, $150,000, which will be here in August," said Swicord.