In Our View: Safer Schools - Precise mapping allows law enforcement officials to respond quickly to emergencies

April 30, 2007
The Columbian

The Virginia Tech tragedy has again riveted the nation's attention on school security and the need for swift response. Fortunately, this state has used a Rapid Responder program since 2003, which includes digital mapping.

As The Columbian's Isolde Raftery reported recently, the program provides police with floor plans and hundreds of photographs of schools. Officers can pinpoint a problem. Within seconds, Rapid Responder gives police, fire and others access to aerial and exterior photos, floor plans and utility shutoffs and containment and family reunification locations.

Washington is ahead of most states in this kind of procedure, with all 460 high schools and 70 percent of elementary and middle schools mapped.

Clark, Spokane and Cowlitz counties lead the state in implementation. In Clark and Cowlitz counties, mapping was completed two weeks ago for all elementary and middle schools, according to Peggy Sandberg. She is director of risk management for Education Service District 112, which serves 30 school districts in Southwest Washington.

The process of mapping a school requires 120 days, explained Joe Hawe, who oversees the statewide project for the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. After that process is completed, the school and law enforcement agencies develop an emergency response plan. Hawe said there have been "20 major incidents at Washington state high schools" in four years.

Clark County schools created their own system in 1998, a year before Columbine, at a cost of $100,000. The Legislature has committed $12 million for the program in the past four years.

State Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, an expert on security and member of the national Homeland Security Advisory Council, suggests schools hold emergency drills against "stranger threats. It's not just fire were concerned with." The Legislature will map all public buildings, but colleges likely will pay for campus mappings, Zarelli indicated.

Although security has focused on Virginia Tech in the past two weeks, younger children and their schools are also vulnerable. That's why digital mapping - which helps police pinpoint the trouble spot - provides a greater measure of security at a time of heightened national concern.

The sad fact is that violence can occur anytime, anywhere.

Vigilance and fast reaction to an emergency are critical needs.

This cost for public safety is fully justified. Besides, when we protect our schools, we're protecting our future.