- Williamston School District is continuing to make improvements to school safety.
- Cameras in the buildings now have firearm detection technology.
- Dr. Adam Spina provides insight into what they have done and plans to do to keep students and staff safe.
Safety continues to be a top priority as the school year approaches. I'm your neighborhood reporter Ava Zanglin, finding out how Williamston Schools are keeping our neighborhood students safe.
Last summer, the Williamston School District implemented numerous safety measures in their schools.
“Every school year, especially over the summer, we have a major initiative to improve our school safety and security,” said Dr. Adam Spina.
Williamston was one of the first school districts to allow first responders access to cameras inside the building, in hopes of decreasing response time in the case of an emergency.
“The cameras are a layer of security that ties into some of the other initiatives that we've done,” said Spina.
However, the Williamston School District is taking student safety to the next level.
“We updated some of our security cameras so that they would run a new program that the district got a grant for last year, and we're going to be implementing it this coming year called ZeroEyes. Which is a firearm detection system that's run through the existing, or now upgraded security cameras throughout the district, ” said Spina.
Williamston is also equipped with Stop the Bleeding Kits, classroom lockdown devices, and an emergency notification system that notifies first responders within seconds of the issue arising.
“We go into it with that mindset every year, that we have to ensure that safety is at the top of our list. In fact our first leadership team meeting we have when all the administrators come back, which was a couple of weeks ago, was all about safety,” said Spina.
Superintendent Dr. Adam Spina said it is impossible to know when danger will arise, but it is crucial to be prepared and have the tools and training that could one day save a life.
“While we can't guarantee anything because we can't predict every potential scenario that could, we have a responsibility to be ready and prepared as best we can,” said Spina.
Williamston continues its preparations well into the school year.
“Next month we're gonna have a major tabletop exercise that's gonna involve multiple first responder agencies, our staff, and that's really helping all of us be on the same page as far as how to respond to a particular situation,” said Spina.
And is making strides to ensure a safe school year.
“We've had a very supportive community and staff, and everybody's been behind trying to do everything they can to make our schools safer,” said Spina.
Students will return to school on August 19th.
In Williamston, I'm Ava Zanglin, Fox 47.
