CALUMET CITY | Thornton Fractional Township High School District 215 plans to add a security gate to a door at T.F. North High School in Calumet City, an adjustment the district had planned to make even before the shooting rampage last week at an elementary school in Connecticut, officials said.
The shooting in Newtown, Conn., on Friday brought to the surface adjustments the district was already in the process of making.
T.F. North will be adding a new security gate to a door near the band area, where students have in the past let others in from the outside.
"It's to help control students after school," T.F. North building foreman Jim Francus said. "We have limited resources for supervision after school so we try to keep all the students in one area."
The door will cost $4,500 and has been in the works for several weeks, Francus said. The gate will roll down in front of a set of hall doors to prevent access.
"We're pretty secure at both campuses," Francus said.
The district will have its yearly health and life safety compliance check in March. Superintendent Creg Williams said he plans to make security and safety "priority items."
"I'll be going over it in more detail, with more scrutiny than in previous years," he said. "I want to make sure those measures are tight, not just in light of (the shooting in Connecticut)."
One of those items will be creating a list of all staff with security swipe cards and the number and location of swipe-card entrances at each school.
"I want to be able to ask administrators and expect them to know how many doors and exits (there are in their school) and when they're open," Williams said. "It's a little different now."
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