In the last several weeks, representatives from the State Department and West Virginia Homeland Security have visited the school to observe the use of Rank One Computing's facial recognition technology.
The Colorado-based company was encouraged to relocate to West Virginia by U.S. Senators Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. and Shelly Moore Capito, R-W.Va. and has established Morgantown as their new base of operations.
The company specializes in artificial intelligence-driven facial recognition software and is working with school districts to roll out the service on campuses. Marion County School Superintendent Donna Heston was first in line.
Rank One evaluated the camera systems in the schools and found that West Fairmont Middle's was essentially a plug and play system, so when their software was installed, the cameras transformed into "smart cameras."
Monday, while the students were out of the building, West Fairmont's faculty were registered into the software's database and officials from other West Virginia school districts were invited to observe.
Jackson County Assistant School Superintendent Jimmy Frashier and Upshur County Interim School Superintendent Deb Harrison were both in attendance Monday to observe and hear the sales pitch from Rank One on their product.
West Fairmont is the first school in the state to implement this technology and other districts aren't far behind. West Fairmont is serving as a pilot school to test the system and Monday was the implementation of phase one, which involved registering faculty and staff members.
"In the next phase, we plan to enroll our coaches, volunteers, parents and students," Heston said. "Enrolling facilitates their entry into the building."
While concerns about the collection of data have been raised, Rank One has stated they are not collecting any additional data that the school's system collects. All photos and information used to recognize faces are stored on the school's network and simply run through the algorithm.
Harrison asked if the public has voiced about concerns about the recognition software. Jessica Sell, Rank One's head of community outreach, said that many of the concerns can be solved by an open dialogue about what the technology is and what it isn't.
"We're not taking anything from the people who enter the building that the system doesn't already have. If a school already has cameras, visitors are already on camera," Sell said. "If [the visitor] has had a yearbook photo taken, if they've been on Facebook or if they've posted a headshot on LinkedIn, that info is already out there. We're just putting good use to the data we already have."
Here's how it works.
Once the system is fully operational, when a visitor comes to the door of the school, the system will search the database for a matching face. If there's a match, the system will retrieve all the stored info — items such as name, relation to the school or relation to a student. This allows school staff to handle visitors outside of the building rather than in the front office.
The system can add individuals to lists, such as one for staff, central office staff, parents and students. The system also has the capability to be synced with sex offender databases and alert law enforcement when a camera detects one near the school entrance.
The enrollment process faculty members went through on Monday only lasted around five minutes total. The teachers scanned a QR code on their phones, entered their information, took a photo of themselves and they were done.
Nancy Joseph, a seventh grade math teacher at West Fairmont, said she had reservations about the idea of facial recognition, but the process was easy thus far.
"I think it's good for safety. We have a big campus with a lot of entry points, so I understand why it'd be safer to know who's coming in and out of the building with a glance," she said. "With this, it looks like we can tell if someone should or shouldn't be here in a few seconds."
West Fairmont Principal June Haught was overseeing the process and registered herself alongside the teachers. For her, this is about adding a layer of protection for her students.
"This is a great thing to keep everyone safe and lets us see who's coming in the building and where they're going," Haught said. "[ROC] has been helpful and walked us through all the steps with us and answered any questions we've had along the way."
©2023 the Times West Virginian (Fairmont, W. Va.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
