The goal, obviously, is to keep weapons out of schools.
So when school starts on Monday in Broward County, every public high school will have walk-through metal detectors up and running, which means every student must pass through them on their way to school. It’s going to be a logistical challenge that each high school has to figure out.
Wednesday at South Plantation High School, the district set up a demonstration of how the metal detector system works. Volunteer students walked through with their backpacks
“This is an additional layer of security for our schools,” said superintendent Dr. Howard Hepburn, pointing out that the metal detectors are just one part of the overall school security picture.
“Are we gonna be very efficient on day one? No, we’re still working out the kinks, so there may be some small delays, our school principals and their staff will work with you,” Hepburn said.
“At the beginning, obviously, students are gonna complain about it because it takes too long, it’s too tedious, you’re holding back 3,000 students, but I think that in the long run, it’s gonna be a really, really helpful thing,” said Gabriella Guaimare, a student at South Plantation.
The neighboring school district to the south, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, has a different view of walk-through metal detectors.
“Metal detectors, I think, is an antiquated technology that makes people feel good because it looks like you’re doing something,” said Miami-Dade School Board member Danny Espino at a meeting last week.
“Fifteen years of research that concluded that metal detectors have no apparent effect on reducing injuries, deaths, or threats of violence on school grounds,” said board member Luisa Santos at that same meeting.
The district’s staff, including the police chief of the Miami-Dade County Schools Police Department, recommended against spending millions of dollars to install metal detectors. Instead, Miami-Dade is investing in a camera system, powered by artificial intelligence, which is designed to detect concealed weapons.
When it comes to school security, “One tool or one piece of equipment doesn’t solve it all,” said Miami-Dade superintendent Dr. Jose Dotres.
Broward Schools agrees with that, saying security is always multi-layered. They tested their system in summer school and learned that some common items such as laptops, umbrellas, and three-ring binders will cause the metal detectors to alert.
So the process is the same as entering a stadium to see a sporting event. Students take items out of their backpacks or pockets which might set off the machines, place them on a table, walk through the detector, and then pick up their things on the other side.
The key to making the system work swiftly is for every student to be ready to walk through.
“Parents, I’m a parent too, sometimes you gotta go through that backpack just to make sure your kids are not bringing things to school that they should not have in their possession,” Hepburn said.
Both school districts currently do random backpack searches with hand-held metal detectors, and Broward will continue that practice even with walk-through detectors going online.