Background
Despite surging COVID-19 cases in the United States, many places are reopening, like schools. Many parents are forced to send their children back to in-person instruction so they can go back to work or because they have found online education to be ineffective. Regardless of the reasons, both educators and parents are worried about how they can send children back to school while still minimizing the risk of infection. One school district, West Orange-Cove Consolidated Independent School District, worked with 2M and our partners in order to work on a solution for their North Early Learning Center, a Head Start education program.
Challenge
The North Early Learning Center had a suggestion to use a thermal solution to screen for high body temperatures which may indicate a fever, a common symptom of COVID-19. However, they had some concerns about how they could efficiently check the temperatures of all staff, students, and guests before entering the facility. With so many people coming in on a daily basis, it would be difficult to check everyone individually with a thermal gun. Not only that, the school also required everyone to be checked for dangerous items with a metal detector. Checking each student and staff member daily with a separate metal detector and a separate thermal scanner would take up a lot of time that could be used for learning.
Solution
The North Early Learning Center collaborated with 2M and our partners to find the right thermal solutions for their facility. Together, we decided to have a total of three thermal walk-through metal detector gates at all major entrances (product 2MTHWT-HMD). These gates are able to check body temperatures just by having the user hold out their wrist to the sensor and they also double as metal detectors.
However, the early education school found that they were having issues using these thermal gates. The gates were pre-installed with thermal sensors that were positioned at a height too high for the small children, making it difficult for their temperatures to be read. When 2M was notified of this problem, an installer was dispatched to drive 6 hours to pick up the thermal gates to bring back to our headquarters in Dallas. Our technician specialists moved the sensors lower in each gate so that they could be used by anyone of differing heights. Once finished, we shipped the gates back, just in time for back to school season.
The thermal gates were the ideal solution for the school. With the gates, everyone was able to get checked quickly before each school day. By combining the functions of a metal detector with a thermal scanner, each person was able to be checked for weapons and fevers at the same time. The gates are also contactless to protect against the risk of contamination and the walk-through design allows for speedy but safe entry.
Customer Feedback
“As a Head Start program, our concern was ensuring that staff, students, and guests were able to be checked for a temperature before entering the facility. 2M worked with us to ensure that our needs were met, including remodeling our devices to accommodate our young students. Overall, North Early Learning Center is very pleased with the partnership with 2M and will continue to use them in the future if other needs arise.”
Abigail Rash, RTSBA
Financial Specialist for West Orange-Cove CISD, North Early Learning Center
If you would like more information on this product or any of our other thermal solutions, then please contact us today!
