Some Muscogee County schools will get security upgrades, but they won’t say which ones
Nearly two-thirds of the Columbus public schools don’t have the security vestibules the Muscogee County School District intends to install at their front entrances in the next several years — but, citing concern about security, MCSD won’t specify which ones.
During its Jan. 17 meeting, the MCSD board unanimously approved the administration’s recommendation to hire Columbus architectural firm 2WR for no more than $100,000 to evaluate those entrances for upgrades to increase their security. After the evaluation, 2WR will provide MCSD with sketches and the scope of each project, according to the agenda item.
The names of the schools weren’t listed on the agenda, and they weren’t mentioned during the meeting or the board’s work session Jan. 9. But when the Ledger-Enquirer asked for the information,
MCSD communications director Kimberly Wright emailed the following response from MCSD operations chief Travis Anderson:
“How visitors access a school building is one aspect of a school’s overall security plan. Therefore, the utilization of a secure vestibule is a component of a school’s security plan. The District does not divulge any aspects of a school’s security plan.”
Monday, the L-E emailed Wright a request for the information under the Georgia Open Records Act, which requires public agencies in the state to provide documents that aren’t specifically exempt from disclosure.
Wright emailed the following reply Jan. 25 to the L-E:
“The information sought in your request is exempt from disclosure under the Open Records Act. The law allows this information to remain confidential in order to preserve the safety of students and personnel.”
Wright cited the following exemption in the law, O.C.G.A. s 50-18-72(a)(25) and (25.1) which state in the material part as follows:
(a) Public disclosure shall not be required for records that are:
(25)(A) Records the disclosure of which would compromise security against sabotage or criminal or terrorist acts and the nondisclosure of which is necessary for the protection of life, safety, or public property, which shall be limited to the following:
(i) Security plans and vulnerability assessments for any public utility, technology infrastructure, building, facility, function, or activity in effect at the time of the request for disclosure or pertaining to a plan or assessment in effect at such time;
(ii) Any plan for protection against terrorist or other attacks that depends for its effectiveness in whole or in part upon a lack of general public knowledge of its details;
(iii) Any document relating to the existence, nature, location, or function of security devices designed to protect against terrorist or other attacks that depend for their effectiveness in whole or in part upon a lack of general public knowledge;
(iv) Any plan, blueprint, or other material which if made public could compromise security against sabotage, criminal, or terroristic acts; . . .
(25.1) School safety plans prepared pursuant to Code Section 20-2-1185, whether in the possession of a local school system, a local law enforcement agency, a local emergency management agency, the Department of Education, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, or any other public entity.
What’s a security vestibule?
A security vestibule provides a multilayered entrance.
“The first entry allows access to a small specific section of the building with a second entry allowing additional access to the building,” Anderson told the L-E in a Jan. 12 email.
Security vestibules help schools funnel visitors to the front office to sign in.
“Many schools without secure vestibules have created processes to either meet visitors at the front door and guide them to the front office or set up satellite workstations at the entrance to greet visitors,” Anderson said. “While these processes are effective, they are not as efficient as secure vestibules.”
Of MCSD’s 58 schools, 37 don’t have a security vestibule, Anderson said. The goal of this initiative, he said, is for each school in the district to have a security vestibule by the end of the 2025-26 school year.
Asked how many security breaches of school entrances MCSD has had this school year and last school year, Anderson told the L-E in a Jan. 20 email that there haven’t been any.
“The driving factor to launch this project is to improve efficiency at the schools,” he said.
The L-E previously reported, however, that an intruder breached the security at an MCSD school Sept. 7.
MCSD Police Chief Greg Arp told the L-E in a Sept. 12 email, “An unidentified and unauthorized female was able to gain access to Johnson Elementary. She was immediately confronted and escorted to the front office and off campus by school administrators. There was no immediate threat to the students or staff, and District protocols were followed to mitigate the situation.”
In response to further questions about the incident, Wright told the L-E in a follow-up email Sept. 14, “According to Chief Arp, a woman entered the building behind a teacher and was immediately confronted, interviewed, and escorted off campus by school administrators. Law enforcement was present on campus. Based on the interview, no charges were filed. There was no immediate threat to students or staff.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2023 at 1:14 PM.
