Sandy Creek High School could be a bit safer thanks to a recent Eagle Scout project by one of its students.
A group from Troop 79 spent the weekend of Oct. 22-23 installing numbered stickers on the outside windows of all of the classrooms and offices on the Tyrone campus. The project was under the direction of senior Brant Bousquet, who began planning it in May and laid the groundwork for it after school started in August.
“He was looking for a good project that would help the community,” said his mother, Daphne Bousquet.
A chat last spring with Richard Smith, one of Sandy Creek’s assistant principals and the school’s athletics director, revealed that the resource officer at the school had just mentioned how outside numbering of the rooms would be an enhanced security feature that could be very helpful.
“It will be a great asset in case of an emergency,” said Daphne Bousquet. “If there were ever an incident where students and teachers are hiding in a classroom, authorities will be able to identify where they are from the outside. You can see it in an instant. Every second counts in a case like that.”
As anyone who has visited one of Fayette County’s public high schools in person can attest, there are a lot of classrooms and offices with windows. It took some careful planning to get it done.
Brant walked the halls of the school just after the current school year began, gathering data on how many windows there were and the corresponding room number for each one. He spent a total of 73 hours on the project.
An important component of any Eagle Scout project is leadership – getting others to participate and directing them so it is done correctly. For the actual installation of the window stickers Brant recruited members of Troop 79 and they did it in two days on a weekend.
When all was said and done, nearly 70 windows at Sandy Creek were adorned with numerical identifying stickers donated by Craig Ruby of Sign and Graphic Solutions in Newnan. “That was a great help,” said Daphne.
It appears that Sandy Creek is the first school in the county to have this particular security feature.
The school system’s Special Response Team, which is made up of officials from the Sheriff’s Department as well as the Fayetteville Peachtree City police departments, recommended the numbers in case of a school lockdown. This would help first responders outside the building identify the classrooms in front of them, according to Ted Lombard, coordinator of safety, discipline and athletics for the school system.
Brant stays busy throughout the year in a variety of ways.
In addition to his scouting activities, he has played varsity soccer for the Patriots since ninth grade and last year was a member of an AFC Lightning team that won the D-2 state championship.
He is now in the process of formally submitting his Eagle application to the appropriate leaders and will present his project to a panel as part of that process.
