'Smart lockers' bring added security to Long Island high school, officials say
BALDWIN, Nassau County (WABC) -- A high school on Long Island says it is among the first in the country to install new, state-of-the-art "smart lockers."
Installation work is underway at Baldwin High School in Nassau County, with completion expected with a few weeks.
Gone will be the decades-old combination lock design that required students to dial in three digits by hand.
They're being replaced with new lockers, equipped with integrated computer chips and linked to sensor networks, that open with the swipe of a student's smart card ID badge.
Baldwin says it is the first K-12 public school district in the country to make the changeover to the smart lockers.
More than half of the $900,000 cost was covered by state grant money.
School officials are hailing the security benefits of the new lockers, even as the installation work continues.
All the lockers can easily be opened or locked simultaneously with the click of a button if necessary, they say.
And students are now required to wear their ID badges at all times to open their lockers, another security benefit.
That will also help solve the problem of students not wearing their IDs. With the new system, they will swipe right into each classroom and teachers won't have to take attendance.
Students told Eyewitness News they are happy about the upgrade.
"We just get to use our IDs and just swipe it instead of having to memorize a locker combination..so it's a lot easier," senior Stephanie Pierre-Louis said.
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