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Barrow County begins daily weapons detection scanning for grades 6—6—; plans laptop photo ID decals
Summary
Support services reported districtwide morning weapons-detection scanning for grades 6— covering more than 8,200 students and described plans to place student photo decals on school laptops to aid identification.
Support Services provided the board with two safety updates: the start of daily weapons-detection scanning for middle and high schools and plans to issue student-picture identification decals for district laptops.
The district said daily scanning currently covers grades 6 through 12, representing "over 8,200 students" and that the scanning process in middle schools has taken under 30 minutes per site since the second day of implementation. Support Services also described an initiative to place a small student photo decal on school-issued laptops so staff can more quickly pair a laptop with its assigned student during morning screenings.
Details and logistics Dr. Bowen, support services, said, "We are now conducting daily weapons detection scanning in all of our schools, grades 6 through 12. That's over 8,200 students that are getting scanned every morning in under 30 minutes." He said middle-school scans have consistently come in under 30 minutes and that staff are using the screenings as an opportunity for positive student interaction.
On laptop decals, Dr. Bowen said teams are working on printing logistics and plan to pull student photos from the district's Infinite Campus system. He told the board the district had already audited Infinite Campus to locate missing photos and that schools are taking pictures and uploading them when photos were missing. The district hopes to roll out decals "in the next couple of weeks by the start of fourth 9 weeks," he said.
Questions from the board A board member asked what would happen if a student did not have a photo in Infinite Campus. Dr. Bowen said the district had performed an audit earlier in the year, that schools are taking on-the-spot photos when necessary and that the process of merging and updating Infinite Campus will help fill gaps.
Ending Staff did not ask for a vote on these items and characterized both the scanning and the decal project as operational safety measures that will be implemented this term.
