Last fall a man with a gun entered Fargo's South High. A police officer assigned to the school was in the building, but dispatch couldn't reach him because the department's radio system doesn't work in all areas of the school.
The man didn't harm anyone before he was arrested, but school officials and police don't want something like that to happen again.
Fargo police recently received a $138,000 federal grant to purchase 172 video cameras and 100 two-way radios for the Fargo School District. The district will match the COPS grant, which funds security improvements at schools across the country.
"This just looked like an opportunity we couldn't ignore," said Fargo Police Capt. Jeff Williams. "The goal is to keep kids safe and give them an opportunity to learn."
Jeannie Baskerville, president of the citywide PTA, said she is impressed with how aggressive police and district officials are addressing school security issues.
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In addition to determining equipment needs, the two groups worked together this summer to update Fargo's emergency response plan.
"I think it all makes kids and parents more comfortable about being in our schools," Baskerville said of additional cameras and radios. "These are all big pluses in my mind."
Last spring's shootings at the high school in nearby Red Lake, Minn., brought school safety to the forefront, Williams said.
But a handful of local incidents, including the one at South High, highlighted possible security gaps in schools, Williams said.
A message written in an Agassiz Middle School bathroom stall last spring threatened the lives of 10 people. The school has no video security system, which may have helped find the person who did it, according to the grant application.
There are video security systems in four of Fargo's six secondary schools. The systems record events at building entrances, hallways and other common areas. They can store up to a month of data.
Now cameras will be added to the district's 15 elementary schools, Agassiz and Carl Ben Eielson Middle School, which opens next fall.
Video cameras not only help solve crimes, but often deter students from fighting or stealing, said Lowell Wolff, who is in charge of the district's emergency response plan.
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Cameras also keep students safer because principals and police officers can monitor hallways, he said. That can be beneficial during an emergency or even daily school life.
For example, the district's older elementary schools, such as Horace Mann and Jefferson, have offices in the middle of the building. That makes it more difficult to see who comes in the main entrance, Wolff said.
"Video is one way we can secure entrances," he said.
Two-way radios will improve communication between school staff and police in buildings that have "dead spots" where cell phones lose service. At elementary schools, playground supervisors could use them to contact the office without leaving students unsupervised, Wolff said.
"We believe now the holes in our security will be plugged," he said.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Erin Hemme Froslie at (701) 241-5534
