Virginia District Tests Visitor Management System

Virginia District Tests Visitor Management System

The Raptor system is operated by the school’s security monitor and checks visitor’s state-issued IDs against national sex offender databases.

  • By Jessica Davis
  • February 04, 2019

Two of Suffolk Public Schools’ campuses are now equipped with the Raptor Visitor Management System. The two schools are serving as pilot campuses for the system before it’s installed at every school in the division.

The Raptor system is operated by the school’s security monitor and checks visitor’s state-issued IDs against national sex offender databases.

“Once I finish everything in about a week, we will train the staff,” said David LeFevre, coordinator of student services. “It should be in all the schools within two or three weeks.”

The Raptor system also helps the schools better monitor who is entering and exiting the campus. They’ll be able to expand the system’s abilities in the future, according to LeFevre.

“It’s going to be really great, and we can do a lot of things. We can count volunteers coming to the school and have a better count of kids with tardies or that leave early,” LeFevre said. “This gives us the opportunity to take a lot of data on things once we get it hooked up to our e-school system.”

The district’s current volunteer management program, Volunteer Connect, does provide sex-offender and child abuse screenings to any registered volunteers. The screenings are done every 12 months.

The new system, however, would provide real-time screening for all visitors.

“Suffolk Public Schools focuses on student safety and staff safety. We have gone a long way from bringing the monitors into the building and bringing in the Raptor system,” LeFevre said. “That is a huge focus for us, and we will continue to look at additional safety avenues.”

About the Author

Jessica Davis is the Associate Content Editor for 1105 Media.

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