OLATHE, Kan. — If you are a parent in the Olathe School District, you won’t want to forget your ID at home.
The District says they will now be strictly enforcing their safety protocols. While it may be a pain for some, the district says it’s all for the safety of the students.
The move comes after a series of recent school shootings across the nation. Twenty students were shot and killed at a Connecticut Elementary School in December. Three weeks ago, two students injured in a shooting at a California High School and an administrator shot at a St. Louis business school in mid-January.
With school safety on the forefront of everyone’s mind, the Olathe School District says they have been carefully reviewing safety protocols district wide.
“Certainly since what happened in December, we pulled our groups of folks together and have been reviewing. We met with out public officials, safety officials, police departments from Lenexa, Overland Park and Olathe and are really looking at what are we doing,” said Olathe School District Assistant Superintendent Erin Dugan.
On Tuesday night a letter was emailed to parents at Ravenwood Elementary School explaining the security procedures currently in place. It’s a reminder some parents say they were happy to get.
“It makes me think, at least they are thinking of it. Maybe they will think of something new that they need to put in place, maybe something outside the box that would be better,” said parent Charity Buehler.
While the district says none of the safety measures are new, they say they will now be strictly enforced.
“On a cold day like today if you got to the elementary door without your ID, it might have been a cold walk back to your car to get your ID, so there is a moment of ugh, but folks are doing it willingly,” said Dugan.
Some of the measures include showing a picture ID to gain entry to an elementary school and having everyone sign in when attending a large scale event. The District says at those events, security guards may be used.
The District says the number and placement of security guards, will be mostly unchanged.
“I think it offers great feelings of security,” said Dugan.
