State Police help with security walk-throughs of Jeff Davis Parish schools

The Jeff Davis Parish School Board and Louisiana State Police are prioritizing safer schools with inspections of schools in the parish to assess security.

JEFF DAVIS PARISH, La. (KLFY)-- The Jeff Davis Parish School Board and Louisiana State Police are prioritizing safer schools with inspections of schools in the parish to assess security.

Jeff Davis Parish Superintendent John Hall says a partnership with Louisiana State Police will provide security.

"This allows us, when we sit down to design with our architects and our school board members, okay, this is what the State Police has recommended we do to make this campus as safe as possible," Hall said.

The Jeff Davis School Board is conducting walk-throughs in schools throughout the parish to get security recommendations. Hall says the perspective law enforcement provides helps out their school building and design teams come up with security measures for schools.

"What's great about this is that this perspective comes from the law enforcement side and not just from our school building and design teams," Hall said, "and so we get that input in which is which is, of course, their recommendations. But we take those recommendations and we use them when we start to spend money on our schools."

Louisiana State Trooper Matt Gaspard says law enforcement's role during the walk-throughs is to offer the point of view of law enforcement.

"Areas we can beef up, you know, where we can put extra security cameras or maybe relocate security cameras that are already in place so they catch more angles, making sure doors lock from the outside to slow down or hopefully prevent intruders from getting inside the school, but still letting students exit in the case of an emergency," Gaspard said.

Gaspard says State Police has been assisting Jeff Davis Parish in all of their walk-throughs as they prepare for the start of school.

"It's great that we have this partnership that they allow us to come along and kind of get a feel for the school, the layout in case we ever did have to respond," he said.

Schools in Jeff Davis Parish begin Aug. 9 with Pre-K, starting the following week.

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