High Tech Monitoring System Protecting Students

A drivers license and a fingerprint are now needed to enter Cooper North Elementary. The school is the first in the area to use a high-tech computer system to track school visitors. One parent said, "I think it's wonderful, I think the more security we have around, the better." That's the same thought Lubbock Cooper ISD had when they chose Cooper North Elementary School as the pilot school for a new high tech visitor monitoring system. Principal Rita McDaniels is the principal of Cooper North and she said, "We chose this particular system because it did two things. It scan's the DPS, the Texas database but it also scans the national sex offender registry." Lisa Edmunds, Cooper North secretary said, "What this will do is it'll tell us today we've had 46 visitors, 22 still here in the building, 24 have signed out and we have our volunteers on here, any visitors, substitutes are on here," and they track everyone who comes and goes, "If we've had an incident, if they know the date, we can pull up that data and we'll have a picture ID of everybody who has been in the school that day," Edmunds added. Cooper North is the first school in the area to try out this program. However, Lubbock ISD is looking into similar programs.