Questions about the new Raptor system?

Since the start of this school year, parents and visitors have been asked to scan their driver's licenses upon entering our schools. This might have been a surprise to some and hopefully, it was not too much of an inconvenience.

We have received several questions about the V-Soft Raptor system and would like to clear up a few questions that are out there.

#1 Is the Raptor system storing visitor's personal/private information? This is not the goal of the Raptor system. The system checks the visitor's information versus registered sex offender databases covering 48 states and Mexico. The single purpose of this system is to alert school administrators and Mansfield ISD Police to the fact that a registered sex offender is visiting one of our campuses.
#2 Isn't information about sex offenders private information? No. Records identifying sex offenders is very public and easily available to anyone with an Internet connection.
#3 I don't believe any sex offenders live in my area. Why should my school have this system? Information posted online by local law enforcement proves out that sex offenders live throughout our school district, and we are not unique in this fact.
#4 Why put Raptor on our campuses? The district responded to requests from parents who wanted a system like this installed. We do believe it further enhances the security of our students on our campuses, and have been pleased with its operation thus far.



















#5 What does the person at the front desk see on their screen after they scan my license? An image is posted above(and on the District site) showing exactly what the front desk staff member sees.
They see: a photo(to verify a match), the name, a driver's license number and a birth date. Nothing more, nothing less.

As with any new system, there has been an initial adjustment period for campuses. So far, it has operated extremely well. If you would like to read more, the District Release is here and at the official Raptor site is here. Please feel free to post any comments below.

Checking in...

Thanks for checking in on our Mansfield ISD Blog. We established this blog in the spring with the intention of starting regular posting this fall.
It has been an eventful year to date. We have seen several events unfold in the first few weeks of school - the tragic death of a student from Summit High, the joyous opening of two new schools(Legacy High School and Carol Holt Elementary), the implementation of the district-wide Raptor security monitoring system, the naming of T.A.Howard's Kathy Meek as the Region XI Secondary Teacher of the Year. The list goes on and on of joys and challenges.
It's also worth mentioning that as of today(Sept14), the district has enrolled almost 2000 additional students, as compared to the same day last year. This means we are rapidly approaching 30,000 total students.
We intend for this blog to be a current and interactive experience for our school community. If you have any ideas for items you'd like us to include here - email them to blog@mansfieldisd.org or post them here.