Dist. 300 debates random searches

Community Unit District 300 officials are considering new measures to enhance student safety.

The most visible of these is a policy that would allow the district to conduct random searches and use handheld metal detectors in its middle and high schools.

The district also is considering creating a new post that would oversee safety efforts throughout the district and is looking at adopting a system that would notify parents during emergencies.

District officials said the new measures were prompted by the recent tragedies at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech, as well as the stabbing of an Elgin High School teacher earlier this school year.

"The district is taking a proactive approach … to make our school environment as absolutely safe as possible," said John Ryan, a District 300 board member and chairman of the policy committee.

Board members expressed ambivalence about random searches, saying safety concerns had to be balanced with privacy rights.

"Do I like the idea? Not really," said board President Joe Stevens. "If for some reason we have a problem at a school and this would have prevented it, would I regret it? Yes."

Under the proposed policy, six classes chosen at random would be searched twice a month at the high schools and once a month at the middle schools.

District 300 already has taken a series of steps to improve safety, including training the staff in lockdown procedures, installing cameras in schools and forming a school climate committee.

Neighboring districts already have adopted some of the measures District 300 is considering.

Elgin Area School District U-46, the state's second largest school district, hired John Heiderscheidt more than a year ago as the district's first safety coordinator.

Heiderscheidt has overseen the expansion of the random searches that were already in place at Elgin High School to all of the district's high schools.

District 300 is looking at creating a similar role.

"The job is too important and too complex to just have as an additional assignment for any administrator," District 300 Superintendent Ken Arndt said.

Huntley Unit District 158 implemented an emergency notification system about two months ago.

The system got an early test in March when parents in Huntley's Woodcreek subdivision were notified by phone and e-mail when a bank near Woodcreek was robbed.

The system District 300 officials are hoping to adopt would similarly contact parents by phone or e-mail.

District 300's policy committee will take up the policy on random searches this month. The administration has not yet brought the safety coordinator post or the notification system to the board.