BEAUMONT, Texas — The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in social distancing, mask requirements, and now a unique little device that is coming to one our schools here in Southeast Texas.
Parents, your students' drop off routine may look a little odd, but we can ensure you, it's for their safety.
Buna ISD is adding new ways to stay safe for the upcoming year even if it adds a new daily task.
"We want our parents to know that we are taking this thing seriously," said Buna ISD Superintendent Donny Lee. So seriously that the distract has added technology at all of its school buildings.
"This is just an extra added layer of security," Lee said.
This small gadget is an easy-to-use temperature screening system. Whether you drop you child off, or send them on the bus, each day students will walk up to a fever device as they step on school grounds in Buna.
"We'll have professionals sitting down in front of the fever machines, and they will be monitoring it," Lee said. The results will come immediately in an array of colors.
"Green is they're clear. Yellow is approaching fever and red at 100.4 degrees is alarms. So it will go fever, fever, fever."
Those showing a fever will be isolated to a separate classroom away from other students and staff. Parents will also get a phone call.
Administrators say they're counting on families being the first line of 'defense'.
"Number one we ask all parents to self-screen the child," Lee said. "What that look like is? Are they running fever? Do they look sick?"
Lee says he highly recommends parents to avoid sending their children to school if they are showing any symptoms of sickness. Lee admits the new temperature checks are not a "cure-all."
"What it's going to do is – it's going to provide an extra tool in our toolbox," Lee said.
Students can expect to get checked in the mornings and during lunch.
And with flu season around the corner, superintendent Lee says, the devices are here to stay. "This isn't just for the COVID-19," Lee said. "This is for flu season that is about to be coming."
Superintendent lee said that as long as operators follow the device's instructions, results will be quite accurate.
