For the first time, Broward County Public Schools is going to test walk-through metal detectors at some of its high schools.
The announcement comes in the wake of several incidents at South Florida schools. From a student arrested at Stranahan High School last Friday for allegedly bringing a loaded gun to school, to a freshman stabbing a classmate with a kitchen knife at North Miami Beach Senior High last Thursday, to guns being found in a student’s car Monday at Deerfield Beach High School, no amount of security can prevent every single incident.
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WATCH HERE“It’s always alarming when students bring weapons to campus,” said Dr. Peter Licata, superintendent of Broward Schools. “We want to make sure that everyone knows schools are safe but just to reinforce that we are going to expand our wanding this week, also our random checks as well.”
Right now, both Broward and Miami-Dade County Public Schools do random checks with hand-held metal detectors, called wanding, and both districts say they will do more of those random checks starting now.
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“I do think that sometimes we’re looking for this one solution, one magic piece, and it’s just not that simple,” said Dr. Jose Dotres, Miami-Dade superintendent, referring to metal detectors. “Again, it’s not a one-thing solution, it is a comprehensive effort where parents are part of the puzzle as well.”
The superintendents agree on that, but Broward is investing “between three and five million” in walk-through metal detectors at several high schools next school year.
“We are in the process of acquiring walk-through metal detectors, we have some other reference points from other districts who do it, so our implementation will be learning from them, but it will be walk-throughs as well, we’ll start at the high school level, 10 to 12 schools, if we can do more we’ll do more,” Licata said.
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The objection to walk-through metal detectors has always been the delays they could cause. No one wants to see long lines of students waiting to get into school every day. However, Licata says with multiple entry points and both staff and students trained on how to go through the checkpoints, he’s optimistic the extra layer of safety can be implemented with minimal delays.
Miami-Dade has not committed to walk-through metal detectors, but it is testing the Zero Eyes artificial intelligence system in nine schools. It uses security cameras to detect guns. Dotres says they are also increasing the amount of random K9 dog searches at schools.
Each superintendent says creating a culture of safety is crucial. A student at Stranahan saw something and said something.
“That is the best detection unit we have, when students know that it’s safe to go ahead and talk about it so I want to thank the student at Stranahan High,” Licata said.
“I now am getting ready to do more messaging on the consequences of bringing a potential weapon to school, these are consequences that will impact these students for the rest of their lives,” Dotres said.
For example, the student arrested at Stranahan High is being expelled from school and he’s facing serious felony charges.
