Drivers Licenses now used for security at a Las Cruces School

Amid heightened security efforts at schools nationwide, Booker T. Washington Elementary School in Las Cruces is now requiring visitors to leave their ID at the front office.

The visitor must also sign in and receive a visitor’s pass. These measures have been put in place to make sure visitors enter and exit through the front door. “What we’re doing is giving staff card keys and access keys to the perimeter doors so that they can get in, but nobody else can get in,” said Tiffany Gomez, the assistant superintendent of leadership at LCPS.

This is the only school with this policy currently in place, but Las Cruces Public Schools are looking into a license scanner that would record license information and print a visitor’s pass.

“We are looking at some neighboring districts that have sign in systems where they swipe the drivers license and collect all of the information. You give the drivers license back to the parent, or the guest visiting the building, and then that person then wears that tag to let everyone know that they did sign in using the secure system for signing in,” Gomez said.

She also says that visitors who do not have a valid drivers license can still visit the school. However, the procedure for that situation will vary on a case by case basis.