North Little Rock school to ramp up security; walks through its gymnasium by random people cited

North Little Rock High School plans to ramp up security after random people have walked through the gym.

The North Little Rock School District will hire three new campus supervisors, bringing the total number of security personnel to 19, said Karli Saracini, the district's executive director of human resources. The district is also planning to gate-off the area of concern -- a part of Orange Street between the post office and the police station that houses teacher parking -- to prevent people from walking through there, district Superintendent Kelly Rodgers said.

"With the new campus, once it opened up -- we finally opened everything up last spring -- we realized that the back side of the campus ... it used to be a street through there so people are kind of used to that, and they're walking through there," he said. "So we're going to gate that off to prevent people from walking through and also put a security building out there."

The district plans to post the three jobs today, after the School Board approved adding the supervisors Thursday. It is also working to get pricing for a gate which will likely go before the School Board in the next month, Rodgers said.

"Safety is important to us and our staff and our students," he said, adding they haven't had any other incidents other than people passing through. "That is a concern. If it's that accessible right now, then we need to put procedures and measures into place to prevent it."

At times, students will prop open doors, Saracini said, which is why she requested two campus supervisors to focus on the outside. The people who have walked through were escorted right out, she said, but someone watching those doors would stop it from happening to begin with.

A third campus supervisor was necessary because the high school is opening a cafe in the old main building, she said.

The high school has 2,162 students enrolled this year, according to state Department of Education data.

Metro on 11/17/2017

Upcoming Events