DECATUR, Ala. — Here’s how the system plans on implementing more security this upcoming school year:
Let's start with the morning time school routine, to ensure traffic and pedestrian safety, those flashing school zone signs will be back.
"Here in Decatur, you will see, you know, that school zones are flashing. Generally, they're going to run from about 7:30 in the morning to 8:15 in our elementary zones but you have some sites that that lap over," said Decatur City Schools Deputy Superintendent, Dwight Satterfield.
Crossing guards and school zones are controlled by the Decatur Police Department, whom of which will really be showing up for the first week of school and again, all in the name of safety.
"I have worked with chief pinion and we will see that all schools, the first few days, will have extra police officer presence there in the morning and in the afternoon. Just the visibility- coming out of the Uvalde situation. We want to reassure everyone that school safety is very vitally important here in Decatur City Schools," said Satterfield.
Speaking of more officers on deck, the school system wants to put more school resource officers in place.
"We hope to have in our upcoming October budget to have an increase in the number of our SROs," said Satterfield.
As well as, really, really taking note of who is coming in and out of school buildings by establishing controlled entry points.
"Well, anytime that you have controlled entry points, it better serves not only to know who's in your building, but it also raises a red flag when you have someone entering or exiting a place that's not designated," said Satterfield.
Although this may be harder to do in some schools, DCS is committed to implementing this safety measure.
"It's a little harder at the high school, as much transition as you have and parking. Some of that, we're tweaking with designs but you know anytime that we can have a controlled setting, it's easy for us to manage individuals coming into our building. That way we know who's there and they can be properly vetted," said Satterfield.