District announces safety measures, will use handheld metal detectors, dog in 2023

The school district is upping security measures at secondary schools in response to this year's surge in gun violence and firearm arrests on campus.

Handheld metal detectors will be used randomly to search for weapons at Leon County Schools in 2023, said Superintendent Rocky Hanna.

"Coming to and from school or not, when you hit our property line, do not cross that line with a firearm," Hanna said.

The metal detectors are one of three new initiatives the school district is implementing to deter students from bringing guns to school.

The handheld wands will not be used at entrances, Hanna said. The detectors will mostly travel with the district's second new initiative, its new "pup patrol."

The district will employ a dog named Stassi, who is trained to sniff out firearms.

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Beginning in January, the district will hold "completely randomized" searches at its secondary schools. No one other than the school's administration and the Leon County Sheriff's Office school resource officer will know, said chief of safety and security Jimmy Williams.

Stassi, who is named after the Bravo reality TV star Stassi Schroeder, will work to sniff out firearms, including bullets, in the classroom while students will be checked with the handheld metal detector.

"Stassi is going to become a rock star here in the next couple of months as she goes to our schools," Hanna said. "This will act as another step, another deterrent."

Stassi was trained by Brian Pearson, a member of the Florida Law Enforcement Canine Association. She will not alert for drugs, Hanna said.

Hanna said the dog and handheld metal detector searches will be quick and won't take up instructional time. He estimates the safety and security team can be in and out of the classroom in fewer than five minutes.

It would take too long for students to walk-through standing metal detectors at school entrances, so the district opted for random searches using handheld metal detectors to complement the firearm-sniffing dog.

"Every kid rushes five minutes before the bell to get to class on time," Hanna said. "Can you imagine 2,000 kids showing up and running them all through metal detectors? We'd start school about noon."

The district also purchased a $21,600 contract with Anonymous Alerts, an anonymous reporting app. Chiles High School has already used the app with great success, district officials said.

Now, every secondary school − students, parents and teachers − will have access to the app.

Every district in Florida already has access to the state's app, FortifyFL, but this new app is another layer of prevention, said Chiles High School Principal Joe Burgess.

Anonymous tips will be sent directly to school administrators.

"If you know kids, they live through their phones, they live through their devices," Burgess said. "So we have that opportunity where they can talk to us. A lot of times, it's hard for them to even talk person-to-person, but if they can get on their phone and use their thumbs and get us a message in real time, they send it, we get it instantaneously, and we get to receive it as an email and as a text."

Gun violence in Tallahassee

There have been at least 103 shootings in Tallahassee this year, resulting in at least 87 injuries and 18 deaths, according to an analysis of gun violence by the Tallahassee Democrat.

Since last year, school and law enforcement officials have been grappling with a spike in the number of cases of students bringing weapons to school campuses.

In October, a Godby High School student was arrested after being caught with loaded gun on campus.

In early September, a Godby student was arrested after he was caught with a loaded 9mm handgun and marijuana in his backpack. Days later, a 17-year-old Leon High School student was arrested after a loaded handgun was found in his backpack.

Two weeks earlier, a Leon County school resource deputy arrested a 14-year-old, who had a loaded gun in his jacket during a Friday night football game between Lincoln and Godby at Gene Cox Stadium.

Last year, at least eight students were arrested for bringing a gun on campus.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Leon County School security: District to use metal detectors in 2023