DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – The new school year is just days away. This year, when thousands of Dallas Independent School District students return to the classroom they’ll be surrounded by better security.
CBS 11 News got a look at what the district has done to protect children.
Four and five year olds at Dallas’ JFK Learning Center are under the watchful eye of a newly added security and surveillance system.
It’s a system parent Carla Rodriguez endorses. “Have more security in the school for the children, for the teacher.”
At 150 DISD elementary schools there will be front doors that have an electronic entrance, large observation portals on the entryways of portable classrooms and a multi-camera monitoring operation in every hallway.
Officials with the district said there is only one reason why they decided to take the enhanced security steps. DISD Police Chief Craig Miller explained, “Eight months ago in December, the Newtown shooting occurred in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.”
The mass killing of schoolchildren last year initiated a nationwide review of school security.
So far, more than $4 million has been spent for cameras, observation portals, and front door buzzers. But the biggest investment may be the training of the adults in schools.
Carmela Levy-David is a principal in the DISD. “All the staff will be trained, now that we have the security measures, on all the ways to monitor the campus, the cameras on our doors and hallways, and monitor people as they enter the building,” she said.
Accessing Dallas schools today means clearance from the front door forward. The district now has the security gadgets in place, in the effort to keep children safe while on campus.
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