It was under former superintendent Kirk Easton’s guidance that the Lennox School District set the goal to have secure entrances at all of the district’s buildings. With the new secure entrance at Worthing Elementary that goal has been met.
Worthing Elementary principal Kym Johnston said, “It provides us with extra security to know we can keep our kids safe. We’ve had reasons locally to want to secure our building.”
Worthing’s secure entrance is just one piece of the security puzzle. Johnston said the elementary school also has several cameras throughout the building with six different views. The cameras have been an on-going project for the past four or five years, she estimated. Part of the funding has come from a homeland security grant.
Johnston said the cameras have the ability to video and archive what goes on, in the building, on the playground and at the front door and parking lot. The footage has provided evidence to catch vandalism on the school’s property.
She said, “It’s an added sense of security and we can go back and review if something happens.”
Johnston said that the staff has had talks with the students about being pro-active in a case of a stranger. She said, “We want to empower students and teachers. We like to think nothing would happen but I like to be prepared.”
With the new secure entrance, parents stopping at the school after 8:30 a.m. will have to ring the buzzer, this notifies the staff through an ipad device and then they are approved to be let in.