CHS to implement new safety procedure

Starting next year, Carmel High School plans to implement a new security precaution, called School Gate Guardian, inside major entryways to the building.

The new system uses an electric scanner to identify all those who enter the building during the course of the school day and after. Adults entering CHS must provide their drivers license to scan as the system then performs a quick background check on the individual. Students are required to provide their student IDs upon entry. Students entering at the beginning of the day will not be required to scan their IDs.

“They make sure that no one comes in our building with a criminal history that would cause us to not want them to be here,” Principal John Williams said. “The other thing it does is it creates another safety barrier.”

In order to accommodate for the new system, some structural changes will take place prior to next year. According to Williams, the school will place additional doors inside the main entrance, attendance office and the Freshman Center entrance.

“Even though we only have three doors open (this year), we still struggle with keeping track of kids and (visitors) coming in without checking in,” Williams said. “With this system, no one will get in our building without the scanner process.”

According to Williams, all Carmel Clay middle schools already have the School Gate Guardian system in place.

Student body president Jeremy Weprich said he sees the value in the system. “This system is just an additional safety procedure,” he said. “It has already proven effective at the middle school level and it is only fitting that we implement the system in our largest school in the district.”

Williams said, “We will be much more able to say that anyone who is in our building is someone who has business being here, and that is a good thing.” By Sara Rogers <srogers@hilite.org>