CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — As a key player in security for a large school district, Emily Bowers can't be everywhere, all at once. However, thanks to Clarksville-Montgomery County School System's Security Operations Center, she can at least lay eyes on every school in the county in real-time.
"It’s a huge responsibility to make sure all of these kids are safe every single day," said Bowers, Safety and Health Specialist for CMCSS. "We are over 40,000 students, we have over 5,500 staff members and so we take our jobs very seriously."
Monday, I was given rare access inside CMCSS's Security Operations Center. Other than the district asking us to not disclose where their security center is located, we were given full access. When you walk in, you can immediately see a giant wall of 68 monitors where where leaders can pull up any of their 4,000 cameras at each elementary, middle and high school.
"We’re able to utilize this as an incident command center anytime we have emergencies occur," said Bowers. "We can zoom all the way to get license plates or whatever we may need."
Sgt. Shelby Largent with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office says the best use of this center is knowing where a crisis may be occurring.
"We can have immediate eyes on it and I can see where my [School Resource Officers] are," said Sgt. Largent. "The quicker we can get help there, the better."
The cameras can also easily track where a suspect may be heading next.
"With the amount of cameras that we have, we can see everything that’s going on in our schools," said Bowers.
For instance, it didn't take long for them to spot our news car, pulling into Norman Smith Elementary in Clarksville. They used several cameras to track our movements as we shot a segment of this story, of course with permission from the district, on their campus. You can watch them track our movements in the video player above.
"The technology that we have in here is super important because we are the eyes and ears of what’s going on. That way we can respond as fast as possible, and be proactive and reactive at the same time," said Bowers.
Other tools in the toolbox
CMCSS also has resources and training available for teachers, if the unthinkable does end up happening. Sgt. Largent showed us the first-aid backpack they've supplied in each classroom. Teachers are also trained on how to use a tourniquet.
"You know, it is a sad day to say that teachers have to train with this — but I think most teachers would be very appreciative of this to have this training," said Largent.
They also use the security center for thorough quarterly safety drills.
"They go in civilian clothes and do an audit of our schools on their outside security and inside security. And when that happens, we use this center as a way to track those individuals," explained Bowers.
CMCSS has other safety protocols in place. If you'd like to, you can read them for yourself.
How the Security Operations Center came to be
CMCSS used state safety security grants to fund their Safety Operations Center. No academic funds were used for the project. The idea for the space came after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
The district has additional ideas on how they hope to enhance school safety, but are waiting to get more state resources from Tennessee lawmakers before they can move forward.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Chris.Davis@NewsChannel5.com.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
