School districts prepare for school year with security
LA CROSSE, WI — With a school year creeping closer by the day, area administrations are scrambling to implement the safest security measures for their students.
The La Crosse School District is spending the final summer days installing the last legs of its newest security that students may not even notice as they pass through the school doors Sept. 3.
“We hope that the kids really don’t even realize we have those systems in place, we want them to focus on their education,” said Grounds Manager Jason Showen.
Those systems include a video intercom system and surveillance cameras set up at the entrance and other locations throughout the building.
The school also implemented a card access control system that locks all exits during school hours.
21574340La Crosse schools aren’t the only ones restricting access to its buildings during the school year. Onalaska High School is also finishing construction that will require visitors to enter the school at its Wilson Street door.
“They will enter that vestibule and then they will go into the office, rather than right into the hallway, which is the way it would’ve been before,” said Onalaska School District Finance Director Larry Dalton.
La Crosse schools haven’t seen too many security problems in recent years, but for Showen, that’s the whole point behind the district’s security philosophy.
“The systems we put in place, we want to see as preventative,” he said.
He and other school officials are hoping the added security measures will keep out what was never meant to get in.
“It’s our job to make sure that we put layers of security, if you will, so that it makes it so much harder for somebody from the outside to get into the building in the first place,” Showen said.
