SUBLETTE COUNTY, WYO –Sublette County School District #1 introduced stricter security measures at its schools recently. Superintendent Jay Harnack said the district is moving to the Raptor Visitor Management System—a self-touted gold standard protection technology protocol boasting some 23,000 subscribing schools nationwide.
“Part of keeping students and faculty safe is knowing who is in our buildings at all times, and the Raptor system will allow us to do that. The Raptor system will better allow us to screen visitors, contractors, and volunteers in our schools and provide us with a safer environment for our students and staff,” Harnack said.
Visitors to a school district building will be asked to present an ID such as a Driver’s License, which can either be scanned or manually entered into the system. If a parent or guardian for any reason does not have a US government-issued ID, the school staff member can use any form of identification and manually enter the person’s name into the Raptor system.
The Raptor system will check to ensure that registered sex offenders are not entering our school campuses without our knowledge. The Raptor system checks the visitor’s name and date of birth for comparison with a national database of registered sex offenders. The registered sex offender database is the only official database checked by the Raptor system.
No other data from the ID is gathered or recorded and the information is not shared with any outside agency. Once entry is approved, Raptor will issue a badge that identifies the visitor, the date, and the purpose of his or her visit. A visitor’s badge will not be necessary for those who visit our schools simply to drop off an item in the office or pick up paperwork.
“The safety of our students is our highest priority and the Raptor visitor management system allows us to quickly identify those that may present a danger to our students,” Harnack assured. “Thank you [parents and guardians] in advance for your understanding and your support in enhancing the school safety protocols in our district.”
