T-L Photo/JOSIE BURKHART When visitors enter Union Local schools, security personnel will scan their identification, ensuring the guest is welcome to visit. Here, Security Coordinator Mike Menges staffs the entrance.

BELMONT — Union Local School District made some security upgrades for the safety of students and staff, including a camera system that can alert officials of an unwanted guest by reading the license plate numbers of vehicles entering the campus.

Superintendent Zac Shutler said the schools invested a lot of effort in improving security, especially through grants. Already this year, school shooting threats were made to multple schools in Belmont County and across the nation.

“I mean if we just look at this school year already, there’s been several threats, not just in our region but across the country. And there have also been a few instances of violence on school campuses,” he said. “You always pray and hope that it doesn’t happen where you’re located, however you still have to be prepared.”

The district upgraded the camera systems at the two entry and exit points of of campus significantly in the last 12 months, Shutler said. The new cameras are able to pick up the license plate of a vehicle and alert school officials if it’s a vehicle that shouldn’t be on campus because the owner is banned from the property.

Security Coordinator Mike Menges said the cameras can also run the car’s owner through a registry that will send information straight to the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office if something is detected that the sheriff’s office would need to see.

The district also has a relatively new security feature called Raptor Technology. It requires a visitor to give their identification to security personnel when they walk into a school building. Jason Greenwood, a retired Ohio State Highway patrolman, is usually there to greet visitors to the middle and high schools, while Kim Martin, a retired military police officer, is stationed at the elementary school.

The security personnel can scan the IDs, which then sends the information through a sexual predator pedophile registry and would alert the security personnel if some concerning result is revealed. Raptor will also alert the personnel if the visitor should not be at the school, perhaps because of a restraining order.

“Now, being at a small school, for the most part we know everybody. But sometimes there’s people we don’t,” Menges said. “So then that’s a way so we don’t screw up.”

After the ID is scanned through the technology, a guest will receive a sticker badge so staff and students in the school will know the person is an approved visitor.

Although the schools do not have a resource officer on campus, they have the security personnel, including Greenwood, Martin and Menges, who are trained in a variety of security measures. The school board also has an approved policy allowing certain trained staff to be armed.

“We want to make sure that our students are in a safe and secure environment, an environment where our staff can focus on teaching,” Shutler said. “We can’t ever sit back and say we’re in a good place with our safety and security. We have to always be vigilant and looking at ways to upgrade, ways to be more secure and be as prepared as we can be.”

Another security feature the district has obtained in the past year is the Centegix system, that goes provides each staff member a button to activate an alert system. If the button is pressed three times, an alert is sent to certain staff members, such as the principal, nurse, social workers or therapist if it’s a medical emergency situation or if a staff member needs help dealing with students, such as a fight between two youths.

If someone presses the button six to eight times, an alert will be sent to 911 and the schools put on a lockdown, no matter which building the button was pressed in.

Menges said in that case, red strobe lights would start flashing and an automated message would go to teachers’ computers and over the intercom saying the campus is locked down.

Menges said the district is working on its intercom system to integrate it with the automated message.

“The idea is that it alerts everyone sooner that something’s going on,” he said. “So, in that way, I tell staff if you push that six to eight times, we’re going to treat it like there’s an active shooter in the building or on campus.”

The district also has metal detectors that students in sixth through 12th grades walk through every morning. Elementary students do not walk through them every morning because of the number of students that would be waiting in a line outside, which is also a safety issue, Menges said.

Guests have to walk through a metal detector every time they visit any of the schools.

During sporting events, guests do not walk through the metal detectors due to a lack of staffing, Shutler said, because there have to be people running the detectors. However, Shutler said the schools do employ sheriff’s deputies to be present at the events, so security is still paramount.

The schools also have handheld wands that go with the metal detectors for personnel to check someone more closely if the detector were to go off.

“It actually goes much more efficiently than you would think,” Menges said. “And over time, it’s gotten way better.”

Shutler said the district has a great relationship with the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office and works closely with Chief Deputy James Zusack, which is a benefit because if he has to call the office he knows they will answer.

“They take it very seriously. We have a good working relationship with Union Local, and all the schools really. We want to try to have that,” Zusack said. “It just helps us out if something bad would happen that they do have things in place that we can use and utilize and help keep the kids even more safe.”

Shutler hopes having all of the schools’ security measures and new features brings parents, staff and students peace of mind that the district is as prepared as it can be and that it’s always looking for ways to be more prepared.

“I don’t think you’re ever comfortable with security, because we’re working with 1,300 students every day and if there’s a problem in society, it’s part of a problem in a school system,” Shutler said. “When people walk through the thresholds of a school, the problems of society don’t go away. So there’s always a sense of concern. But I think that sense of concern drives you to be prepared. So even with these new additions, there’s still a drive to be prepared to keep our campus safe and secure in the event of any type of threat.”