Schools to receive computerized system to check vi

Until this school year, people wanting to visit West Ashley High simply would show their driver’s licenses and receive a guest badge.

Now, the school has a computerized system that runs visitors’ names through a national sex offender database and alerts the school if it finds a match.

“It was very lax,” Assistant Principal Dale Metzger said of the school’s former visitor security system. “It’s been a great improvement. We were kind of in the dark. It’s opened our eyes to what’s out there and for the need for this level of security.”

Every Charleston County school soon will be receiving this same system. The school board last month approved spending $147,420 of its capital budget this year to put this software in every district school. Installment and training for school employees is scheduled for the first two weeks of March.

“You need to know who’s in your building and who’s around your kids,” said Kevin Wren, the district’s campus safety coordinator.

Read more in tomorrow’s editions of The Post and Courier.