Schools implement new safety procedures, ease parents' fears

Schools implement new safety procedures, ease parents' fears

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TEMPE, Ariz. -

The Connecticut school shooting massacre is prompting schools around the country to come up with ways to protect students better.

We visited two districts in the valley doing their best to keep kids safe on campus.

At Esperanza Elementary School in the Kyrene district, at this school, there's an emphasis on safety. So they've made some changes to make this place more secure.

In the Kyrene school district every visitor must provide a picture ID to get a badge to visit the school. When visitors leave the school gets the badge and they get their ID back.

It's a way to know who's on campus, when and where. Parents like the change.

"I love it, this has always been a concern of mine and it makes me feel better knowing they are implementing these security measures," says parent Kendall Downing.

But the district says it's not a defense against an armed gunman with an assault weapon.

"The likelihood of a school being able to thwart that specific of an incident might be difficult, but what it does do is put us in more of a frame of mind to know more about our campuses," says Nancy Dudenhoefer of Kyrene School District.

No armed officers are planned for the Kyrene elementary schools. But there are officers for older students.

The Phoenix Union High School District has an armed school resource officer parked right in front of the school.

After the Connecticut shootings, the school conducted a thorough review of all its safety procedures.

"Having 10 full-time security officers and 140 teachers, they are in tune to anything that falls out of the norm of the school day," says Chris Jones, principal of Central High School.

One thing school districts don't want: teachers carrying guns.

School districts we spoke to say they want teachers to concentrate on teaching kids and let police officers and security professionals handle the guns.

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