Our commitment to student and staff safety and our focus on Safe and Supportive Schools, one of the five areas of our strategic plan, has led Lawrence Public Schools to purchase additional tools to proactively assist our staff in maintaining safe learning environments for all students. 

 

Our district implemented Gaggle, a safety management tool, last year. It helps us ensure that students are safely and correctly using school-provided digital tools in accordance with the district's Acceptable Use Policy, Student Code of Conduct, and the Children's Internet Protection Act. Gaggle screens students' use of district devices for potentially concerning behavior or content. It alerts school administrators so they can intervene and support students potentially showing signs of self-harm, depression, thoughts of suicide, substance abuse, cyberbullying, credible threats of violence against others, or other harmful situations. Read more.

 

With student and staff safety at the forefront, the Lawrence Board of Education used a Kansas Safe Schools Grant, providing 50% matching funds, to purchase the Centegix Crisis Alert system. It adds another layer of protection for our schools. The district is piloting this system at six schools -- Cordley, Deerfield, Sunset Hill, Woodlawn, Billy Mills Middle School, and Liberty Memorial Central Middle School. These schools are of varying geographic location and size and agreed to test the system and provide us feedback. 

 

Teachers and staff at these schools are wearing badges that include an alert button. In the event of an emergency, staff can press this alert button to immediately notify school and district administration and first responders of a safety concern. These alerts provide the location of the individual calling for assistance to facilitate a rapid, targeted response as needed.

 

This year we are training school office staff to use Hall Pass, a visitor identification system. This system will proactively protect our schools by increasing security measures and safeguarding students and staff from potential dangers. 

 

School staff will ask visitors for identification, such as a driver's license, or information typically included on an official ID. They will ask the visitor's destination and purpose of visit and take a photo of them. (Note: Visitors need only to present ID and have their photo taken once at any of our campuses districtwide.) The Hall Pass system uses visitors' identification to search data from a real-time registry of individuals convicted of sex crimes. 

 

Time-limited and time/date-stamped badges with photos are issued to visitors cleared for school entry. Visitors should return these badges when leaving the campus. Hall Pass alerts school administrators, security officials, and/or law enforcement if the system indicates that a visitor may pose a danger by gaining access to a school campus.

 

Our first priority is maintaining safe and secure learning environments for all students and staff. We also want our schools to be welcoming places. These technology tools operate in the background to enhance our existing safety and security measures and assist us in proactively addressing potential concerns.