The Laboratory Schools are implementing new security policies, including a new pre-screening policy for all visitors and providing after-hours Kenwood Mall access to parents.
Visitors, including parents and alumni, will now be required to present government-issued identification to be scanned as they enter, unlike before, when the former system required individual photos of visitors to be taken for a daily visitor pass.
Director of Safety and Security Michael McGehee said with the new policy he expects greater convenience for visitors.
“It’s probably a second in terms of time difference,” he said, “but you no longer have to pose for a picture as long as you have your valid ID, so that’s the biggest convenience.”
Lab’s former security program provider, LobbyGuard, was purchased by another school security company, Raptor Technologies, in 2019. Since the security team has experience with the companies’ technologies already, Mr. McGehee doesn’t think there will be difficulties in adjusting to a similar platform.
In addition, parents can now access the Kenwood Mall gates starting at 4:30 p.m. by tapping their Lab parent ID.
The change was a response from parental feedback from previous years.
“There was feedback from parents that wanted access and we tried to accommodate,” Mr. McGehee said. “We have after school programming late day that is occurring where kids are utilizing Kenwood Mall space as well as the playground there, so that’s why we don’t want to open it up to the public.”
While supportive, Parents’ Association member and former board member Nausheen Zaidi doesn’t believe the new policy will bring significant changes.
Ms. Zaidi also said she hopes Lab will be more welcoming to families and visitors.
“It’s fine for safety, but also you want the schools to still be welcoming once those safety parameters have been met,” she said. “For instance, if I’m volunteering to bring food to a classroom or whatever, I can enter through Judd, but if I need to go to the gym or back, I have to walk all the way around to Judd again.”
