LATTA, SC (WBTW) Latta Schools will have more security officers at school-related events and social media monitoring, according to Latta Schools Superintendent Dr. John Kirby.
The Latta School Board decided to increase security measures after they noticed a rise in activity-related incidents. Although there is police presence at sporting events, not all school functions have police.
“We will have security personnel at any activity where the community comes whether it’s an academic challenge match and only five parents show up or a basketball game where 1000 show up or a PTO meeting, we want high profile,” Dr.Kirby said.
With the new measures, the board has established contracts to allow for three activity security officers and a district safety coordinator.
Latta will also start social media monitoring through a service offered by Florence Darlington Technical College. It will alert the school when online threats are made.
Dr. Kirby said the enhanced social media measures were thought of after two students made a threat at the beginning of the school year.
“We dealt with them and expelled them forever, so we took that very seriously and kicked gears in for us to think of other methods that we needed to continue to ensure that our students, staff, and schools were safe.”
Latta will meet with FDTC on Friday to learn more on the social media monitoring system.
