According to Dr. David Luke, Louisville Municipal School District Superintendent, for several years the district has been proactive in the area of school security and safety, which in light of recent tragic events makes the need all the more evident.
In small towns like Louisville, there is a tendency to become complacent and believe that school shootings won't happen here. But Luke said, "If not the first one, one of the first ones, started in Pearl, Mississippi, and sort of kicked off the era we've been going through for the past 25 years now." He added that as a school district this is something they are definitely aware of and are constantly trying to provide the safest environment possible for the students.
Some of the steps taken to enhance security include a state-of-the-art camera system on each campus which is monitored on the campus and can be monitored from the district level, as well.
An automated door lock system has already been installed in the schools, which allows for main entrances to buildings to be automatically locked and unlocked, and can monitor the status of those doors. Luke noted that individual classroom doors should remain locked.
There are school resource officers (SROs) at the various campuses throughout the county, who respond to any type of emergency. One SRO covers the campuses of Fair Elementary and Louisville Elementary, which are directly across the street from one another. SROs are also stationed at Eiland Middle School, the combined campuses of Louisville High School and the Career Technical Center, and one each at Noxapater Attendance Center and Nanih Waiya Attendance Center.
The LMSD is unique in that there are four campuses within the City of Louisville, but two outlying schools. Police response to the city schools should be no issue, but will naturally take longer for Nanih Waiya and Noxapater. However, Sheriff Jason Pugh stated that he does have officers who live in those areas who would respond even if they are off-duty.
Pugh and Louisville Police Chief, Sean Holdiness stated that all of their officers have been trained for active shooter incidents. Holdiness added that in an active shooter event, it doesn't matter how many officer arrive at the scene first, even one officer, they are trained to immediately respond to the scene the shooting, no waiting.
He said, "In the old days, you set up a perimeter and cleared each room one at a time, but that is out the window. Now, you respond to the scene of the gunfire and put down the threat, to save as many lives as possible."
A new security tool, called Centegix, is a badge worn by the teachers, which contains an alert button. If the teacher presses the button three times it alerts the principal that the teacher needs assistance. However, if the teacher presses the button several times rapidly the campus is automatically locked down.
Even with all of these innovations, Luke stated that school safety and security is a community-wide effort and urged everyone, "If you see something or hear something, then say something."
To this end the STOPit app is being rolled out to the public, which is free and can be downloaded from the app store, and allows anyone in the community to anonymously report concerning activity.
Luke said that the district is always looking for new ways to enhance safety and security on all campuses and ways to fund those efforts.
