As we return to RHS for the 2023/24 school year, many students have noticed a big construction project happening in the Main. The school has purchased a new security system called Raptor, by Raptor Technologies, which required a complete overhaul of the front entrance of the school in order to be used effectively. According to their website, Raptor is an “Integrated school safety software that enables schools to prevent, prepare, respond and recover from any emergency. This  new software system includes three types of protocols. 

The first protocol Is called Visitor Management. This protocol will monitor and keep track of all visitors on campus and will also do a background check on every visitor on campus for the most amount of safety as possible. 

The second protocol is called Volunteer Management. This is much like the first protocol but more vigorous. The Volunteer Management protocol will evaluate every volunteer on campus and do more of an intense background check to make sure that we have safe, upstanding people on campus. 

The last protocol is Emergency Management. With this protocol, all staff members at RHS have access to Raptor Alert. This will ensure that every staff member goes through standard response protocol in case of an emergency on the RHS campus. This includes five different alerts that include lockdown, secure, shelter, evacuate and hold, so any and every staff member is able to activate any of these protocols with a click of a button. 

As nice as it is to have this system, it did not come cheap. Installation of this system for the whole district comes to about $50,000, with an additional $34,500 every year to retain access to the program. This price includes every school campus, including RHS, and the entire central office. More than 40,000 schools across the country and worldwide also use Raptor. It is also said that schools that do not have this system yet will also be getting this system in the future.