If your child attends an elementary school in Oxford County, you may need to be buzzed in before you can enter the building come September. The Thames Valley District School Board has applied to the Ministry of Education for $415,000 in funding to ensure each of their 134 elementary schools are safe. Thames Valley Superintendent of Safe Schools Barb Sonier says following the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut last year which killed 26 people, the Premier introduced the Safe Welcome Program which would see all elementary schools locking their front doors starting in September 2013. "What they did do is offer funding to put in place security system that monitors the arrival of guests to the main doors of the school, and allows them to enter the school on the permission of a staff member. So, it is partial funding; they've offered $3,100 per elementary school." Sonier adds that the board has taken it upon themselves to mandate any student walking to or from a portable to the main building be accompanied by another student. A memo was going out to schools Monday afternoon and the policy would take effect immediately.
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