Parents and visitors to New Hanover County pre-kindergarten, elementary and middle schools during the first week of school faced an added layer of protection with a new security system.
MaryPaul Beall, principal of Wrightsville Beach School, said all responses to the system have been positive.
“[Parents and visitors] like it. They don’t mind that extra step to get into the building,” Beall said during a Sept. 2 phone interview.
New Hanover County Schools Safety Director Dave Spencer said response has been positive at all schools.
“I think folks have accepted that we live in a different day and time. I’m old enough to remember when you didn’t have to lock your front doors when you went to bed. That’s different now,” Spencer said during an Aug. 29 phone interview.
Installation of the system, which allows school staff to see visitors on a closed circuit television monitor before granting access, was a top priority in a security and vulnerability assessment of county schools completed in 2013. The assessment was commissioned in response to the December 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.
Spencer said the Sandy Hook shooting also influenced the decision to install the systems in elementary schools first.
“As a result of the Sandy Hook incident, I think everyone really wanted to jump to protect our little ones first. I don’t mean that they are any more important … but I think most of us felt like elementary school kids are off-limits, that no one would ever hurt elementary kids,” Spencer said.
From a practical standpoint, installation at elementary and middle schools was simpler and quicker due to compact campuses, typically contained to only one building.
The new system is not yet installed at Roland-Grise Middle School, the only middle school without it at the start of the school year, because the multiple freestanding buildings on campus made installation more complicated.
Spencer said Roland-Grise and the district’s high schools would be outfitted with the new system soon.
The cost to buy and install the initial Ai Phones systems totaled $128,564. Spencer said Wilmington-based American Detention Systems and county facility planning staff installed most of the systems during the summer vacation most of the systems, although some were completed at the end of the 2013-14 school year.
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