South Lakes will soon join many other Fairfax County schools in receiving a security system makeover.

According to school resource officer Scott Bacon, many modifications will be made this month. 

“There will be two access points that can be viewed by cameras, and that will be door one by the main office door four on the other side, down by the activities office,” Bacon said. “The assistant at the front desk will be able to see who they are when they buzz in and open the door remotely.”

While students and guests will have to follow the protocol Bacon described, faculty members have MicroProx Tags on their badges that will allow them to enter the school. Security officials plan on carefully monitoring these passes.

“We’ll keep tabs on the proxy passes,” Bacon said. “If one is lost, then we can remove it from the system.”

Acting security specialist Tom Cook believes that this will better protect the building.

“The rationale for implementing this system is to make the school safer and to allow us to know who is entering our building at any time,” Cook said.

Bacon agrees with Cook about the benefits of additional safeguards.

“It’s to ensure that when people are coming to visit the school, they have a purpose for being here and they know that they need to come to the main office and get a visitors pass,” Bacon said.

While trespassing is not currently a serious problem here, there were episodes in previous years.

“We’ve had intruders in the past,” Bacon said. “They were mostly students from other schools that were skipping from their schools and coming here to wander or see their friends. I have had maybe one or two incidents in seven years where I’ve actually had an adult trespassing in the building that shouldn’t have been here. That may have been prevented had we had a door access system.”

Special education teacher Rachael Crawford thinks that it is better to be safe than sorry.  

“We live in a pretty safe community, but unfortunately a lot of things that happen in other schools are also in safe communities,” Crawford said. “You never know what is going to happen.”

Career and education teacher Jennifer Dixon also supports the new security measure. 

“I think it is a modern necessity for a school,” Dixon said. “I think that it will give me more peace of mind about the safety of the building.”

The system is working effectively in other Fairfax County schools.

“Just about all the elementary schools and middle schools have the system in place,” Bacon said. “It’s just now as funding becomes available that they’re upgrading the high schools.”

Main office receptionist Angel Scott worked in a FCPS elementary school with the system and is comfortable using it.

“I’m used to it because I’ve had it in an elementary school before,” Scott said. “I know that there is more traffic in high school, but I think it will be okay. It should work as long as everyone follows procedures.”

Some members of the faculty foresee challenges implementing it at South Lakes though.

“I think that the reasoning behind it is good to keep everyone a bit safer, but there are definitely going to be some growing pains,” Crawford said. “I think it will be a rough year to see how it works out.”

A common concern is the difficulty students in trailer classes will face if they need to return to the main building while class is in session. 

Bacon offers a possible solution to the problem.

“If a student is in a trailer and wants to come into the building, then they’ll probably have to have a proxy badge on a hall pass that they can wave in front of a card reader at the access points,” Bacon said.

Another issue is the predicted backlash from the student body. 

“I feel like it is a good thing that they’re locking all the doors, but a lot of students will be mad because it prevents skipping and they’ll get in trouble if they’re late,” senior Erin Persil said. 

Senior executive council officer Olivia Wolfe hopes students will appreciate that protection it offers them.

“They’ll be frustrated, but at the same time they need to realize that it is for their own safety,” Wolfe said.

Bacon believes that the benefits the system offers outweigh any drawbacks.

“Looking at it from my point of view as a police officer, any system that we can implement that is going to improve the security of the building and protect the kids is worthwhile,” Bacon said. “Unfortunately kids don’t see that a lot of times or look at the bigger picture.”

Cook is optimistic that Seahawks will eventually adjust to the changes.

“The biggest obstacle will be getting used to do something different,” Cook said. “Once it is in place and becomes common operating procedure, it should not be a big deal.”