New metal detectors arrive at 4 Palm Beach County schools. What to know about the scanners

Students taking summer classes at John I. Leonard High School in Greenacres became some of the first students in the county to test freestanding metal detectors.

It took about two minutes for 40 students to move through them Thursday morning as they arrived on campus. The students walked through with their book bags and purses but needed to remove their district-issued Chromebooks.

The metal detectors are part of a pilot program at four schools: John I. Leonard, Palm Beach Lakes, Seminole Ridge and Palm Beach Gardens High.

The pilot program, which supplied each school with two or three sets of metal detectors, cost the school district $250,000.

More: Palm Beach County school leaders OK $2.25M for metal detectors at all high schools

In May, the school board agreed to set aside $2.25 million to purchase metal detectors for all 24 high schools in the county if the pilot program is successful.

School Police Chief Sarah Mooney, who supervised metal detector installation and training for staff, said she hopes they deter anyone from bringing any type of weapon to school.

"If this helps them feel safer coming into school, that's half the battle," she said.

Here's what to know about metal detectors at schools in Palm Beach County:

1. What do the new metal detectors look like?

The OpenGate scanners are freestanding pairs of battery-operated metal detectors that students walk through.

The machines detect multi-caliber weapons and improvised explosive devices, according to the company's website.

The metal detectors are moveable and each pillar weighs 25 pounds, Mooney said. School staff will store the detectors in a locked room inside the school when they're not in use.

She added that the scanners can be moved to after-school events, like football games to speed up fans' entry to the stadium. Currently, fans are scanned with handheld metal detectors and are required to bring clear bags to sporting events.

2. How do metal detectors at Palm Beach County high schools work?

At John I. Leonard and the three other pilot schools, students will congregate outside until the school gate is opened. A second set of scanners will be placed at each school's bus drop-off point.

School staff will tell students to remove their Chromebooks from their backpacks, which will be inspected and returned to students after they walk through the scanner.

If the scanner's alarms sound, the student will step aside with another school staff member who will use a handheld metal detector to scan their body and the outside of their bag.

If school staff find a weapon, the school's police officer takes the student into custody, Mooney said.

The scanners are calibrated to detect weapons and large metal items.

Mooney said, occasionally, large three-ring binders and large umbrellas have set off the scanners. They do not detect cellphones, jewelry or piercings, vapes or electronic cigarettes.

3. Will all Palm Beach County schools have metal detectors?

Not yet.

Although the school board approved $2.25 million for scanners at all district high schools, Superintendent Mike Burke said he'll wait to buy the equipment until he can review the results of the pilot program.

Burke said he wants to know whether scanning up to 3,000 students each morning causes delays to the start of the school day. He said he had hoped to run the pilot program this spring, but supply-chain issues pushed back delivery of the equipment.

All students at the four pilot schools will be notified of the metal detectors before the start of the school year.

Currently, there are no plans to install metal detectors at middle or elementary schools.

4. How did students react?

Students at John I. Leonard have been walking through metal detectors for at least a week, school staff said.

Few asked questions about the scanning but some hesitated to walk through.

Mooney said the scanners are so common at sporting events and the airport that she doesn't feel they'll be intimidating to students.

Teachers and school staff walked through scanners at the front of the building along with students Thursday morning. Mooney said individual schools will decide whether to scan staff as they arrive on campus.

5. Not all types of weapons will set off metal detectors

The school district operates 24 high schools that serve nearly 54,000 students.

Last school year, school police confiscated at least 27 weapons from students and one from a teacher, according to district records. At Palm Beach Gardens High alone, district reports show three students brought guns to school last year.

Several students who were expelled told the school board in confidential hearings that they'd brought different types of weapons, including tasers and pepper spray, to protect themselves on their way to and from school.

The new metal detectors won't alert staff to tasers and pepper spray, Mooney said. But she said that if parents or students are worried about safety on the way to school, they should alert the school instead of bringing any type of weapon.

6. Do metal detectors make schools safer?

All Broward County schools use handheld metal detectors to scan students for potential weapons.

Miami-Dade County schools use random metal-detecting scans but don't have permanent metal detectors on campuses, according to district records. About 14% of high schools across the U.S. use random scanning, the data show.

A 2019 report from the WestEd Justice and Prevention Research Center found that during the course of one school year, 57% of weapons confiscated in New York public schools were found without using a metal detection device.

The report said for every 23,000 students scanned, just one dangerous item was found.

Complicating the findings, according to the WestEd report, in some cases, staff were not properly trained to use the metal detectors, or the equipment did not work correctly.

Still, others studying the matter say metal detectors may serve as a deterrent. If students know they'll be scanned when they enter schools, they may be less likely to try to bring weapons to campus.

Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our work, subscribe today!

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: New metal detectors installed at 4 Palm Beach County high schools