Frederick County Public Schools Enhance Entrance Security

FREDERICK COUNTY, MD - Frederick County Public Schools are beefing up security where they say it's needed. Some of it is a result of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.  

Carroll Manor Elementary School had its buzzer and camera installed this week.

"Newtown gave us an opportunity to go back and reflect on our practices and evaluate them," says Ann Bonitatibus, chief operating officer at Frederick County Public Schools.

It's a simple buzzer that school officials say could keep someone who shouldn't be entering the building, out.

"We thought perimeter safety was a reasonable, prudent thing to do now we can say all of doors are locked to our schools," says Clifton Cornwell, coordinator of Frederick County Public Schools Security. 

And those small changes and others in the future could make a big difference. That's why school officials are asking for more funding for security in the coming budget. They say it's a slight increase of $25,000, on there nearly $250,000 dollar funds.

"Additional funding could come from the state, we'll see what we get down the road and of course, it won't all be used for entrance ways," says Cornwell.

School officials say before they had been installing five or six new buzzers a year.

Since theSandy Hook incident, they've now installed about two to three a week, with nine schools left to go to finish the year.