Amidst an increased number of violent attacks on schools around the nation, many districts have taken action to increase security measures. As this national trend continues and as school violence remains, Lewis-Palmer District 38 has also taken new security measures.

“We are trying to make the school as safe as possible, in light of all the recent shootings we’ve had around the country,” John Roche, a security officer at at Lewis-Palmer, said. 

The first of D38’s actions taken to increase security at the high schools was an implementation of door alarms in order to channel all entering and exiting of the school to the front doors. Lewis-Palmer has attempted to limit students from entering and exiting the school from side and back doors previously, but has remained unsuccessful until officials installed alarms on these doors.

“We have increased our door security, so that during the day, we can control the flow of people in and out of the buildings through the front doors. Today was our first day doing this, and we’ve had a few false alarms as the students and staff get used to the door alarms,” Roche said. “I’m hoping by in about a week, everyone will be used to the door alarms, and everyone will enter and exit through the main doors during school hours.”

The security officials have also begun using a student-identification card scanner. They are currently testing this scanner as students enter the school before school hours, and hope to implement this system completely later in the year.

“We are also beta-testing a student scanning device, and that is just another measure of keeping people out of the building that aren’t supposed to be here,” Roche said.

District 38 has also implemented armed security at both Lewis-Palmer and Palmer Ridge. Although arming school officials is a controversial topic around the nation, D38 believes that it will be able to further ensure the safety of the students.

“Per our security director, we are not supposed to tell the students that we are armed. I can tell you, though, that there is a sign outside the front of the school that says that we do have armed security, and the sign doesn’t lie. I think that being armed will allow us to respond to critical incidents much quicker than the police could,” Roche said. “I know we have an officer here, but there is a certain response time during such an incident. Having armed security at the high school allows us to address issues of violent nature almost immediately, rather than having to wait for someone to respond.”