Building Security
District 155 buildings feature limited and secured access points for visitors. People may only access the buildings through these secured doors. Visitors during regular school hours must surrender government issued identification that will be scanned against a criminal offender database and will not be returned until the visitor leaves the building.
Each District 155 school has a school resource officer (SRO), a police officer who has undertaken training specific to working in a school setting. For our schools, the SROs are full-time members of the Crystal Lake or Cary Police Department. These police officers are present to secure our buildings, investigate incidents at the school, and maintain order. Their efforts are supplemented by D155 personnel including the deans and vice principals.
Other safety measures in the schools include video surveillance across all of our properties, a full-time security guard (in addition to the SRO), and visible employee, substitute, and visitor badges. Our staff utilizes keyless access points to eliminate physical keys from circulating.
The district has a strong focus on preparedness, and completes safety drills (which exceed state mandates) several times throughout the year.
In an effort to increase the security of our buildings, District 155 utilizes a visitor check-in procedure at all schools. Each guest must present a government-issued ID card during regular school hours and wear a lanyard and guest badge during his/her visit. This ensures that authorized guests are immediately identifiable to students and staff. As part of this procedure, the school holds the visitor’s government-issued ID until the guest checks out to leave this building. Acceptable forms of identification include a driver’s license, state ID card, or passport. Additionally, we scan all visitor IDs against the national offender database to help us identify potential threats.
Because all guests enter and exit through a controlled entry point—each building’s main entrance—we are able to track who is in the building at all times. This is important information to help keep our schools safe, and will be shared with first-responders should an emergency arise.
There will be no exceptions made to this procedure. To be granted access to the building, all visitors must present a government-issued ID. We ask that all visitors during regular school hours cooperate with this process in order to help us maintain school safety.