Iowa School District Looks at Buzzer Systems to Help Block Intruders

In Marion, Linn-Mar officials are looking at a district-wide security upgrade that could help keep unwanted visitors out of schools and stop, or at least slow down, security threats.

Within a year, all Linn-Mar Schools could have buzzer systems, intercoms and cameras at entrances. The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT in December kickstarted a push to make entrances secure, Superintendent Katie Mulholland said. 

"The reality is, if someone wants to do harm in a forceful dangerous way, there's not much we can do to prevent it," Mulholland said. "But, there's a lot we can do to slow it down and give law enforcement a chance to help, and that is the purpose of something like this."

In March, the district invested $25,000 with Shive-Hattery to produce a district-wide security upgrades study. Now, they look to put the study into practice. 

The specifics of this security project, including a timeline, aren't finalized, but it would fall within roughly $250,000 that would encompass a number of projects, Mulholland said.

At Wilkins Elementary, they adopted a new entrance policy at the end of the school year in preparation for a new buzzer system next year. All parents and other guests must have a pre-approved reason for visiting the school. 

"Some of these procedures will be quite different from our current practice and it will take all of us working together to ensurea high level of safety and security," Wilkins Principal Marilee McConnell wrote in a letter to parents. 

School board member Robert Crawford supported the study about security when it was approved in March, and said they are looking for the best way to control access.

"It used to be 10 years ago, you could go to the high school and go into any door anytime," Crawford said. "That time is passed."

Crawford said the district has always kept up on school safety over the years, such as installing cameras, but the Newtown Shooting showed it is time to take another step.