Visitors to Detroit Public Schools Community District buildings are being met with a new check-in policy as the district builds upon efforts to prioritize the safety of its students and staff.
Superintendent Nikolai Vitti alerted families of the change with robocalls and emails and posted a message on the district website and social media channels, stressing that keeping students, staff and school communities safe remains DPSCD’s highest priority. Schools also have worked to inform families through local communications and posed signage.
“We realize this is a new process and may be frustrating for some visitors,” Vitti noted in the announcement, “but please keep in mind that this is another safety strategy we are implementing to keep everyone safe and accountable.”
Under the process, visitors, including parents and legal guardians, must present a photo ID or have their picture taken via the new digital platform, called Visitor Aware.
The system, up and working in all schools, has facial recognition capabilities to verify that the person presenting the ID is the person pictured. But Vitti told BridgeDetroit “we are not using this feature.” The district is also not running visitor’s information against government and sex offender lists – another capability of Visitor Aware that the district will not be using – said DPSCD spokesperson Chrystal Wilson.
Vitti said in an email that the program will act as a replacement for paper sign-in sheets and be used to cross reference with a list from principals of individuals who should not be in the school building.
DPSCD’s security ramp up follows two classroom incidents involving students with weapons. The district in October promised to make changes to its security protocols after an eighth grader stabbed another girl in class at Gompers Elementary-Middle School with a knife her mother allegedly brought into the school past a metal detector. Months later, a student reportedly chased another with a boxcutter around a Denby High School classroom. Vitti told BridgeDetroit that the changes to visitor check-ins were being developed prior to those incidents.
Beyond the check-in measures, the district is spending $4.3 million to hire 38 additional security guards for the rest of the school year and recently began a security screening pilot at 10 schools. Vitti has said that the pilot will last for the remainder of the year. If the process is faster and more efficient at detecting weapons, the district will consider adding it to more schools next school year.
Visitor Aware was piloted last spring in Detroit schools, according to a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on the DPSCD website that was later taken down. When the pilot was complete, the district installed the equipment needed for the digital platform, trained staff over the summer and at the beginning of the school year, and integrated the system with existing safety protocols.
The program is overseen by the district’s Technology Division, Public Safety and Office of Schools departments.
How does the check-in platform work?
All visitors need to bring a photo ID or some form of identification, like a state ID or an utility bill, Vitti said in an email to BridgeDetroit. Once a visitor checks in, the front desk will take their photo and provide them with a visitor badge. If a visitor forgets their ID or a form of identification when arriving, a photo will still be taken for their temporary visitor badge and additional paperwork is required.
“We use the program to know who is in the building (a replacement of paper sign-in sheets) and to flag who should not be in the building based on a list provided by the principal,” Vitti said in an email. “Names are used to cross reference this list.”
Visitor Aware is among the notification software platforms used in colleges and universities, government and healthcare settings, manufacturing sectors, as well as for businesses. The software was developed by Madison, Wisconsin-based Singlewire.
Visitor Aware is used in 300 schools and districts nationwide, Singlewire Communications Director Chris Swietlik said in an email. Some of those places include the Madison Metropolitan School District, Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District and Wausau School District in Wisconsin, Maricopa Unified School District in Arizona and the Sioux Falls School District in South Dakota. Locally, Bloomfield Hills Schools began using the app on March 3.
Vitti said that the changes are the result of concerns raised by principals and staff regarding negative experiences with school visitors and parents, as well as the need to ensure the safety of students and staff.
“Many institutions, especially government-run buildings, require a check-in and ID process to ensure safety,” he said.
Keeping the school community safe
Erica Thompson, a parent to two daughters who attend Marcus Garvey Academy on Detroit’s east side, said she hadn’t been inside the building since the new rule went into effect but doesn’t have a problem with it.
“Anything to keep the kids safe because you never know what could happen out here. I commend it,” she said.
Fellow Marcus Garvey parent Ashley Jones said that she recently encountered the new process and was a little surprised.
“It’s a little invasion of my privacy, but it’s a necessary protocol,” Jones said.
Special education advocate Sharon Kelso has raised concerns over the optics of the policy and has questions about how personal information is being protected.
Kelso, who visits DPSCD schools to assist families who want her guidance for talking to teachers and administrators, said she experienced the new check-in process during a visit to Renaissance High School on Feb. 2, a week before Vitti’s announcement went out to parents.
Kelso explained that she and a parent went to the school to meet with a building administrator to discuss a child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP). When Kelso and the parent were walking to the building, she noticed that the parent took out her driver’s license.
“I’m looking at her, and I said, ‘We have to have our driver’s license now?’” Kelso said. “She said, ‘Yeah, they do this for us to come into the building.’”
A security guard put Kelso’s ID through a scanner and instructed her to step back so he could take a photo, she said.
“I said, ‘Now, what do you need a picture of me for when you just scanned my license?’” Kelso said.
Kelso said she believes that the policy is “too much” and worries that it “will have parents and visitors feeling like criminals.”
“Who wants to be subjected to that? We want our schools to be safe, but I think we can be proactive and have people monitor our halls more, rather than doing all those restrictive things,” she said.
Kelso also wants to know how security measures are being implemented for teachers and staff members and whether the personal information and photos of visitors are being retained, and how, after they leave a school building.
“Where’s the data going? People need to know that if you’re going to take their information, then you have to be open with what you’re doing with it,” she said. “It’s like an invasion of privacy to a certain extent.”
Vitti said that the visitor badges are returned or discarded when a person leaves and people’s photos remain at the school buildings and in an encrypted file by Visitor Aware. DPSCD has set a three-year retention period from a person’s most recent visit. If the visitor does not return within three years, their profile, including photo and visit history are deleted.
Like Kelso, DPSCD board member Ida Short is concerned about the storage of people’s personal information. But said that she supports the policy overall, with issues like human trafficking targeting children, she said, school safety and security are tantamount.
“We have a lot of stuff that’s going on in this country, in this city, and so, to help our students, staff and parents be safe is important and we have to do all that we can,” Short said.