From 2014 to 2024, the yearly number of school shooting incidents rose from 47 to 336, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database. This increase in school shooting cases around the country. FCPS has employed safety measures, notably, the installment of metal detectors.
School shooting incidents were at their all time highest in 2023 with 351 cases. In a survey of 130 CHS students, 57% of students replied that they feel less safe coming to school due to the rise of gun violence in the country. Through the installment of the new metal detectors, FCPS aims to create a more secure space for students and staff. Additionally, the district plans to implement the weapons detection system at its regular business school board meetings.
“[Metal detectors] are a good addition to keep students and everybody in the school safe,” School Resource Officer Lane Leisey said. “I think that it will deter someone from even thinking about bringing a gun into the school because they’re probably going to get caught through the metal detectors.”
(Huda Noorzai)
The new metal detectors are through the OpenGate weapons detection system, a similar system to ones installed at sporting events and concerts. Detectors can identify prohibited items such as guns, knives and other weapons that include metal. FCPS has installed metal detectors throughout multiple high schools and plans to expand the initiative to all middle and high schools in the district.
“Every morning, the entire administrative team of [CHS] is deployed at one of our entrances to monitor the OpenGate system,” Director of Student Activities Brendan Shapiro said. “It’s a challenge to everybody because we have 3,000 students coming through the doors, roughly, but we are doing the very best we can in these circumstances.”
Although new measures are being taken to protect students, 68% of students from the survey replied that the new metal detectors don’t make them feel safer. According to the Justice and Prevention Research Center, although metal detectors provide visual evidence that measures are being taken to address security at school, they may unintentionally send the wrong message that there is an active threat to students and others in the community. In fact, researchers have also found that students report feeling less safe in schools where metal detectors are present compared to the students in schools without.
“The metal detectors don’t make a difference for me,” junior Noreen Chiang said. “I feel like it’s more of a burden because sometimes I can get late to class and we have to stay out until 7:45 a.m., so it can be very inconvenient.”
According to the poll, 79% of students responded by saying that they feel that FCPS can do more to help address gun violence. In addition to the new metal detector policy in schools, FCPS is taking steps to reduce the risk of gun violence by promoting free locks for firearms to parents, encouraging safe storage of guns away from minors, alongside frequently posting updates about the new OpenGate policy.
“I think FCPS is doing good with informing parents and being transparent and with executing the OpenGate policy at school,” Leisey said.
