I-Team 8: Schools put to the test Pt. 4

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - All week long, I-Team 8 has been testing the security of Indiana schools. Thursday the focus is on a security solution that's working in one school district.

We went to Warren Central High School, this time through the front door, to see how technology is keeping potential troublemakers out of that high school.

Warren Central is changing the face of security. The school bought a computer that scans the driver's license of every visitor, cross referencing each person against a national database of child molesters or violent offenders.

It’s an investment of $8,000 to check out every visitor during the school year. “We had over 10,000 visitors to this building,” says Warren Central’s principal Rich Shepler. “So we knew we had to update what we're doing, making sure we were tracking much better than what we were, because safety and security is number one,” Shepler added.

It takes just over a minute for a visitor to check in. However, when our I-Team 8 photographer tested the system he got red flagged.

In the main office, school officials called up a photograph. It turns out our photographer shares the same name with a registered sex offender in Wisconsin. The photograph proves there’s no resemblance

Even though Warren Central spent money for this system, we discovered schools are getting fewer dollars for security.

In the year 2000, a federal program to make schools safer was paying Indiana schools more than five million dollars a year. But over time it has dwindled. From the three years just after Columbine, to the past three years, funding is down 22%.
School safety expert Chuck Hibbert hopes funding decreases aren't breeding complacency when it comes to keeping kids safe. “Anything that happens around the world, can happen in this country,” warns Hibbert. “Not only in schools, but elsewhere we seem the further away we get from the event the less impact it has upon us and I think that's the challenge for all of us involved in prevention,” said Hibbert.

We're asking you to take pictures or video of security lapses at your child's school and send them to us. Or if you want us to check out your neighborhood's school, drop us an email at schoolsafety@wishtv.com .