Va. Beach nixes automatic checks - The Virginian-Pilot
The Virginian-Pilot
© September 13, 2011
Virginia Beach officials are wisely abandoning a plan to spend $120,000 installing security software in all schools to screen every visitor for sex crimes.
The school division tested the system at three schools in the spring. In four months, the system identified one offender. A pizza delivery man with a record of sexual misconduct was ordered to leave Larkspur Middle School when he arrived to drop off pizzas for a classroom function, according to reporting by The Pilot's Mike Hixenbaugh.
A similar system in Chesapeake's schools hasn't flagged anyone since it was installed more than a year ago.
Of course, nobody wants rapists or child molesters at school, but there's little evidence that the security software - which would cost $36,288 a year to maintain - would make school campuses appreciably safer.
Already, it's a felony in Virginia for a sex offender to enter a school. The school division conducts background checks on employees and requires visitors to present ID when they register at the office. Security is already tight.
The software is designed to make it tighter. It scans IDs, checks the name and address against state sex offender databases, then alerts select school officials if the visitor is flagged.
The Texas-based software company, Raptor Technologies, says its system has been installed in more than 7,000 schools across 42 states, including in Richmond, Fairfax and Prince William County.
School officials say budget constraints will keep them from installing the security software - not an unreasonable move given the times. But the software isn't a safety cure-all. Until the division's security is determined to be inadequate, there's no need to spend the money.
13 Sep, 2011--
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