Weapons detection isn’t guaranteed, EVSC school safety auditor says

EVANSVILLE — Weapon detection technology is not guaranteed to function and may cause false alarms for objects that are not weapons. These are just two of the concerns EVSC’s new school safety consultant raised before the school board recently.

Remarks by Kenneth Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services, at last week’s school board meeting suggest that technology will not be his company’s recommendation when it reports this summer after conducting a top-to-bottom assessment of school security measures.

EVSC has so far resisted calls from some parents for it to follow the Warrick County School Corp.’s lead. WCSC decided Oct. 13, after a series of threat incidents, to spend $300,000 on weapon detection technology at its three high schools and the Warrick Pathways and Career Center.

More: EVSC school safety audit won’t be what people expect, consultant promises

But after Trump’s presentation last week, EVSC School Board Chairman Mike Duckworth said the company was wise not to “react knee-jerk to a neighboring company and others within the state that have installed metal detectors.”

“Our approach is a little more methodical,” Duckworth said, emphasizing that EVSC would instead rely on what it and Trump’s company learn from teachers and school administrators.

Trump pointed out that people still get guns from the Transportation Security Administration, and that TSA agents “do an outstanding job at what they do and are highly trained, more than you could ever train staff at a school to detect weapons.”

“So you can have weapons detection that has six different parameters,” Trump said. “You have to decide what you’re going to do. Do you want to get to the most sensitive setting, where you’re going to collect the little knives and other things and where you’re going to have hundreds or thousands of kids standing outside for hours to get in?”

Trump pointed to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, where administrators recently asked students not to bring metal 3-ring binders and metal-framed backpacks to school because the items appeared to trigger weapon detection systems. School officials suggested students bring pocket folders, plastic 3-ring binders or notebooks instead.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools have spent nearly $20 million on the technology, Trump told the school board.

“They realized these false results were causing disruption,” he said.

One thing Trump didn’t tell the EVSC school board: Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools told Louisville Public Media News in 2023 that after installing weapon detection systems, the number of weapons found dropped from 30 in 2021-22 to three in 2022-23.

Trump has already made another point about Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools’ experience with gun detection technology, one he did not make to the EVSC school board: Last August, a staff member was charged with a crime after two guns were allegedly found in a fanny pack at a high school. But the weapons were discovered by staff, not scanners.

“The financial part”

Since many students still use school buses, Trump rhetorically asked EVSC school board members whether school officials would provide for metal screening of students before they board buses.

Weapon detection systems can lead to fundamental changes in a school’s culture, the consultant warned.

“And then of course, the financial aspect, is there a better investment based on your assessment and your data to put those resources elsewhere?” he said.

Trump noted that EVSC started the school year with a metal detector at the Academy for Innovative Studies, which students must pass through when entering middle and high schools.

“We are open-minded. There are certain contexts in which weapons detection can play a role,” he said.

School districts may think they are alleviating parents’ concerns about gun detection technology, Trump said, but that can backfire.

“There’s so much huge pressure – it’s like, ‘OK, we’re just going to put this together to convince the parents feel Now the parents are even angrier because they have had the illusion – which we call security theater – that this is going to give a guarantee that no one can give.

Trump’s remarks disappointed Crystal Barnard, a Thompkins Middle School parent who has spoken out about safety issues at the school.

“Before they even complete an audit, they seem sort of opposed to metal detectors or gun detection,” Barnard said. “What do they really think they’re going to come up with?”

Barnard guessed, based on Warrick County School Corp.’s $300,000 spending, that the $215,750 EVSC pays Trump’s company could have been used to install metal detectors at two schools.

EVSC regularly spends millions on capital projects that are arguably necessary, Barnard said, but she added they are not as necessary as student safety.

“I understand there are a lot of costs with (weapon detection systems), but I really don’t think it’s about price,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: How EVSC Handles Students Who Bring Weapons to School