Metal detectors in schools

Should metal detectors be used in schools?  is a topic I am asked about frequently. I am neither for or against metal detectors. What I am for is for parents, students, staff, etc. to be informed of all that is involved. This is just a blog post; more info will be in my book, so I'm not going to write a book-length post here. I will refer to experts, and incidents from news articles.

Some metal detector companies require all lower floor windows to be sealed. Not doing so could void the warranty should a tragedy occur. 

What if these windows had been sealed?

Who remembers "the boy in the window"? Patrick Ireland likely would not have survived the Columbine massacre if he could not have gotten himself out through a window, even though he was severely injured.

The Boy in the Window

May 24, 2022--Uvalde, Texas: A metal detector wouldn't have helped here because at least one back door was unlocked, reportedly open...

"Finally, police approached from outside the classroom and broke the windows. The teacher called for her students to line up. Quickly but orderly. Just like they do every day for lunch and recess.

One by one, the teacher held their hands and helped each of her students out the window."

Uvalde Texas

"Daniel later climbed out of a broken window to escape, cutting his hand on some glass, he said"

A 9-year-old describes escaping through a window during the Uvalde school massacre

"All you hear is shots go off, and my teacher ran to the door," the student said. "He looked out the door and he just tells everybody to jump out the window and tried to take cover behind his desk, and we just jumped out his window."  Erie High School shooting suspect turns himself into police

"students can smuggle items through entrances or windows not staffed with detectors, or others who have passed through can be handed items from those who have not via windows or other openings. Several high-profile cases have illustrated these inadequacies in search policies. In some locations, the detectors are not even operational."  Metal detectors and school violence

This is probably one of the best articles out there on metal detectors in schools--how they fail, how students get weapons inside of schools:

"Some teenage boys say they use girls as couriers, smuggling in weapons on female students, who aren't supposed to be patted down by male security guards. Groups of students wait until just before the school day begins, when the guards are more eager to rush them through to get them to class on time." MEASURES TO MAKE D.C. SCHOOLS SAFER FALL FATALLY SHORT

"In fact, a report shows the student said he was “allowed by school administration” to go in through a back door of the school where there is no security checkpoint. Special education students get dropped off at that back door." How East Tech student brought assault rifle into school

"In a statement, Greenville County School District said all of its schools have metal wands, but not permanent fixed metal detectors because they are not 100 percent effective at keeping weapons out of school and create a false sense of security. The Post and Courier also interviewed multiple school safety authorities who said that metal detectors were not an effective way to keep guns out of schools."  10 days of mourning and resilience: Inside Tanglewood’s deadly school shooting

"Metal detectors? Too easy to bypass, too expensive and too disruptive. One logical step to address the issue would be to keep guns off campuses, and a common method to attempt that is by installing metal detectors, which are often employed by some of the bigger school districts.

“There’s a number of ways they can be bypassed,’’ Dorn said. “Every school I work with that uses them mentions to me, ‘Oh, we see students do X, Y and Z to get around metal detectors.’ It’s very expensive to do it correctly, and it’s limited to specific environments.’’

Guy Russ, head of armed-intruder prevention at Church Mutual Insurance, puts it in starker terms: “The thing to realize is it could mean that the person manning the metal detector is the first one to get shot,’’ he said." How to keep schools safe? We're focusing our time, energy and money on 'all the wrong things,' experts say

"The student walked through a metal detector while armed with a handgun, according to administrators. When the gun was fired, school officials said the student was alone, and no one was hurt."

"School officials said the student was taken into custody, and now they are looking into how that student got through the working metal detectors without being stopped."

"It was the main entrance the student went through, yes," said Stout. "Everything is working properly."

"The district said since installing metal detectors at middle and high schools across the district, this is the second instance of a weapon somehow getting through."

Putnam City student who fired gun entered school through metal detector

“I do not believe metal detectors are the answer as a rule for day-to-day school work. For entry into a basketball game or a football game, perhaps. For day-to-day school operations, no. … There are hundreds of windows on the ground floor. There are dozens and dozens of doors on the ground floor through which things, weapons, could be slipped.” It’s time to revisit metal detectors in schools

"Metal detectors may also have an undesirable impact on school operations. As anyone who has flown in or out of a major airport can testify, the requirement to walk through a metal detector can create major traffic jams during peak times. Schools using metal detection at campus entrances may need to stagger start times for the first period. Students lined up outside the main doors could present a fire hazard. Additionally, while students are waiting to get inside, there is an inherent danger in that they are left vulnerable to threats outside the building"  Metal Detectors in Schools

"Ken Trump, president of Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security Services, believes metal detectors are an unsustainable, knee-jerk political reaction. He cautions against their use for practical reasons like cost, and because they are often seen as a replacement for better strategies."

5 reasons metal detectors in schools are a bad idea, according to security expert

"A middle school where a 14-year-old boy was shot and wounded in the neck by a fellow student had metal detectors, and school officials were investigating how the shooter made it past them.

"The obvious question is: How did this get past a metal detector?" he asked, referring to the gun. "That's something we do not know yet." Atlanta schools chief unsure how middle school shooter got past metal detector

"Investigators have learned the armed student brought the gun into the building through a side door opened by accomplices. The accomplices will be disciplined, Canfora said."  Student sneaks gun past metal detectors into Cleveland high school, tries to sell weapon in bathroom

"Will all ground-level windows be permanently secured at all times so no one can pass a weapon through an open window to someone who already passed metal detector screening and is in the building?  Would doing so even be allowed by local fire marshals?"  Metal Detectors and School Safety

"Witnesses said the eighth-graders had argued before the shootings at Carter G. Woodson Middle School, where students must pass through a metal detector to enter. The younger boy got the gun from outside the chain-link fence and shot the 15-year-old, only to have the older boy grab the gun and shoot him, police Lt. Marlon Defillo said."   2 Hurt in New Orleans School Shooting

And all of those links are just for starters. We have to remember that some school shooters want a high body count; some want to beat the number of students killed at Columbine. Imagine hundreds to thousands of students lined up to get into school--they would be sitting ducks for a shooter to take out an untold number of students.

Some school shooters also attempt or have considered using bombs, Molotov cocktails, or other explosives. In a school with metal detectors that require all lower level windows to be permanently sealed, those windows could not be used as emergency exits. Think of being in a classroom and an explosive goes off outside in the hallway, or another classroom, and windows are the only exits. Then what?

What do students feel about the use of metal detectors? Most of what I have read, the students are not for them. Before a decision is made about the use of metal detectors in schools, the students need to give their input--their voice should be listened to. I am reminded of this piece:

"This week, several members of Congress complained about the hardening of the Capitol after last week’s violent insurrection. They complained that the metal detectors created chaos and lines, infringed on their liberties, and were a diversion of valuable resources. These are the same complaints that advocates have been making about the hardening of school buildings for years.

Immediately after this news spread, I thought about a 12-year-old girl in Washington, DC — just blocks from the very same Capitol on which insurgents laid siege — who told me that she begins her day flanked by law enforcement officers, standing in line waiting to go through a metal detector. She’s only in middle school, and yet this Black child is made to feel like a criminal walking through the school doors. She was also acutely aware that this was both a waste of time and a waste of resources. She is right."   It’s Time to Consider Removing Metal Detectors from Schools Now

And this one:

“From the moment we stepped through the doors in the morning, we were faced with metal detectors, X-ray machines, and uniformed security,” said Ward, describing a high-poverty, majority-black campus “where many young people … feel unwelcome and under siege.” When School Feels Like Prison

At school events such as PTA meetings, back to school night, sports or music concerts, metal detector use is suspended due to the sheer number of people coming and going. It would be easy for someone to hide weapons inside the school to retrieve at a later date after going through a metal detector.

What about during thunderstorms, snowstorms, and other inclement weather? Math problem: It takes 10-15 seconds to go through a metal detector (if nothing sets it off). How many minutes/hours does it take to process 1000/2000/ or more students?

Who will be trained to man the detectors? Those persons should be very well trained and have their life insurance premiums paid up because they may be the first one killed if a shooter is determined enough.

Then there are ways for kids to get weapons past the detectors. In the early morning rush when students need to get to class on time, if a detector goes off the student may say "Oh, it must've been my belt buckle!" and keep going. Kids get all manner of items into school--one said she gets her cellphone into school (they are banned for students at her school)--by putting it inside her umbrella, and the umbrella sets of the detector. Instrument cases are rarely, if ever, checked. "Oh, it's just my sax/clarinet/guitar/etc.!"

I recently heard that backpacks don't go through metal detectors in some schools because the zippers are metal and would set them off and it would take too long to check them all...so all a shooter would have to do is keep the weapon in his/her backpack...

I believe that the use of metal detectors is something that should be researched thoroughly and all of the pros and cons considered. It should be up to individual schools, or districts (along with parents and students), to decide this. It should definitely not be mandatory, across the board, for every school! It should be a thoughtful, well planned decision, not a knee-jerk, emotional reaction.

But all the drills, lockdown practices, and Run Hide Fight is useless when negligently leaving backdoors unlocked and unattended allows shooters to enter. No one teaches kids/teachers what to do when schools negligently leave their doors unlocked and a gunman barricades himself in their classroom and there is nowhere to run, hide, or fight.

See also my post: Metal Detectors in Schools, Part 2

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