Technology helps schools screen visitors for sex offenders

A growing number of educate systems nationwide are using new technology to learn more about the populate who visit their campuses. One security measure currently being piloted in clean schools aims to determine convicted sex offenders before they get past the front desk. Front-office employees at three schools are requiring parents and other visitors to hand over driver licenses or green cards so they can be computer-swiped to check for convicted sex offenders. A positive match alerts police and school officials by text message and telecommunicate. The identification scanner which looks like a slightly oversized eyeglasses inspect can construe any U. S government IDs and a Mexican government-issued ID card. The technology also allows school officials to print out visitor passes with more detailed information including a person's driver license photo arrival measure and destination in the school. "The system is not just to track sex offenders. It's to bring in visitors and volunteers," said Hoover guard Lt. Maurice "Mo" Canady. Hoover schools guard liaison. "It's imperative for my kids and all kids in the school district that we know who's in the building." Raptor Technologies a Houston company is providing V-Soft a Web-based software application for a free trial. It would cost $1,500 per school the first year and $400 or so per school in subsequent years. Canady said. More than 3,000 schools across the country use V-Soft said Samuel Olivares a technician for the company. The system checks the first and measure name as well as the birth go out of a visitor against a database of convicted sex offenders that's pulled from state databases and updated every two weeks. Olivares said. It's all information that is available to the public. Canady said. A couple could happen when a visitor has the same name and date of birth as a sex offender. But school officials can determine it's not the same person by comparing the photo identifications or physical descriptions. Olivares said. School officials would develop protocol for the new system. Canady said. They would have to use discretion and command any matches case-by-case he said. David Thompson president of the Alabama Association of School Resource Officers said he doesn't experience of any other Alabama school system with a similar schedule. "It'll just make you more aware of potential problems," he said. "I'm sure all schools watch visitors closely when they're around children. But it would let people know ahead of time that this person has a history and they would be extra diligent." Thompson said even with the tool there still are gaps that need to be addressed specifically when parents are convicted sex offenders. "Everybody thinks of a sex offender as this strange person you stay away from and you can tell right off the bat they're a sex offender but a lot of sex offenders are parents and they still undergo rights as a parent," Thompson said. "But where does that conflict with the rights of the school and the rights of other parents?" Also school officials would need to believe what to do in instances when parents lack identification. Canady said. That has been an issue for some schools. Olivares said and some parents don't like handing over their driver licenses.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/66051.html

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