Marion County Schools to partner with Rank One Computing for new safety program

FAIRMONT, W.Va (WDTV) - Marion County Board of Education listened to a presentation about a facial recognition-based program that would serve as an extra safety measure within its schools.

Superintendent of Marion County Schools, Dr. Donna Hage, said that she felt this software would keep those within the school safe without the necessity of a weapon detector.

“That would be less intrusive than perhaps metal detectors. It would give us that security that we need at the entrance of our facilities, as well as the parking lots of our facilities,” she explained.

CEO of Rank One Computing, Scott Swann, was a Doddridge County native and worked with his team to discuss how the company’s software would benefit the school environment.

“A visitor entry solution, where we could help automate some of the visitor entry to schools and ensure that the people that are coming to schools should be there,” Swann said.

He added that in addition to the data uploaded into the system by the schools. They could team up with local law enforcement to create a database of people that they feel should not be allowed in the schools.

Hage said one of the plus sides to this program was they already have cameras.

“So we could utilize the camera systems that are in our schools. It becomes another layer of protection that we have on our campuses and in our schools,” she added.

They planned for Marion County Schools to be the pilot of this program. It would be the first school program through Rank One Computing.

“We actually want to start that here in West Virginia. We’d like this to kind of be an organic approach to working out the right kinds of requirements through partnership within West Virginia. Then we’ll think about our national strategy,” Swann explained.

Rank One and Marion County Schools would work together to figure out the logistics necessary to implement this program as soon as possible.

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