WAUSAU (WAOW) -
Effective immediately, all Wausau classroom doors are to be locked during class time. Wausau's superintendent says locking the doors is the latest in a series of measures to keep students safe.
She says that building on things some schools already have in place.
At Franklins Elementary School in Wausau, no one can walk right in. Just last month, a buzzer system was added.
Once you get through the front door, you're forced to go straight to the office. The doors into the school are locked, and then you have to sign in.
The secretary pushes a button and only then will the door open. The school's principal says its working.
"We're greeting everybody that comes to our building. We're making sure we have that face-to-face contact with everybody," Franklin Elementary School Principal Jon Euting said.
But school leaders agree, there's always more that can be done.
"I think we're always looking for improvement and systems and structures that you have in place, making sure they're the best they can be," Euting told Newsline 9.
A special Wausau School Board meeting was held on Monday. The only item on the agenda was school safety.
"We're going to look at school by school. They key is limiting access," Wausau Superintendent Kathleen Williams said.
Williams says locking classroom doors during class time is the right move.
"That was something we thought was a very easy thing to do, where it's done sporadically now, but we know the importance of limiting access of outside perpetrators," Williams said.
Now, the district is looking at what other measures can be put into place. Williams says that includes seeing how a buzzer system, like the one at Franklin, could be used at other schools.
"See how it works, how it doesn't work and make modifications accordingly," Williams said.
The school board is expected to meet again in January.
