Aiken County Board of Education members were treated to a live demonstration of another step the school district is taking to ensure the safety of students and staff members.
During the Aiken County Board of Education on Aug. 23, school board members approved using $1.1 million from the fund balance to purchase 62 OPENGATE Weapons Detection units.
Dr. Corey Murphy, the chief officer of operations and students services for Aiken County Public School District, told board members that the goal of the weapon detectors is to discourage people from bringing a weapon to the schools.
“This is a very powerful tool that can be used as a deterrent to students making poor decisions, parents making poor decisions to bring large knives or firearms into our school system,” Murphy said. “This demonstration will not be of a metal detector, but a weapons detector. Because with metal detectors you have to… take off your book bag, empty your pockets because anything metal will set it off.
"There’s new technology out now that basically they’re smart detectors… that can check your book bag while its closed, it can check your purse, your coat for any of the items we’re looking for.”
The Aiken County Public School District is focused on safety and security.
Uses of detectors
The detectors are portable, can be used in different locations and won't slow down traffic as people are walking into the school, Murphy said. He added the plan is to use a combination strategy when it comes to deploying the detectors, which means they will be moved around and used throughout the schools. The plan is to have at least two units at the middle schools and high schools, and at least one unit at the elementary schools.
“It’s a combination of entry way screenings and random pop-ups,” Murphy said. “So …we’ll pick an entry way and say everyone who comes in this entry way will be screened. Then throughout the day, based on administrator availability, we’ll do random screenings throughout the school. Keep in mind at the elementary level the threat is not internal, the threat is usually external. At the middle and high (schools), that’s where we need to deter to keep students from making poor decisions.”
School board member Dwight Smith said he likes that the weapons detectors are portable and asked if they would be used at athletic events. Murphy said yes, they can be used at indoor and outdoor events.
“We’ll have them at all major events,” Murphy said. “We’ll have enough that if we need more, …we’ll shift them over and you can transport them in an SUV or pickup truck.”
For the Aiken County Public School District, the safety of students and employees is a top priority, now and always.
Other school districts using the detectors
Kevin Wren, a safety consultant with A3 Communications, spoke to board members about the detectors, which are made by CEIA. The open gate weapon detectors do not have a top bar and have been around for a year.
“Just as an example of districts that are already using and/or purchasing the open gate units are (Richland 1, Richland 2, Darlington, Charleston, Spartanburg 5, Richland/Lexington 5, Spartanburg 7, Cherokee, Fairfield),” Wren said. “This is just a list of the ones I know of in South Carolina that have purchased the units or are involved in purchasing those units. They all vary in degrees with how they are using the units, whether it's Friday night football, whether it’s every kid, every day, whether it’s some random kind of process, each of those districts has their own process of what they’re doing, but they all have purchased the CEIA units.”
Wren added that there are some items, like laptops that can set it off, so there will be a process to deal with that.
“Laptops they all have a hinge and there’s a metal bar that runs across those, so the detector believes that’s a large ka-bar knife,” Wren said. “You want to catch a large knife, you don’t want to catch a laptop… to get away from it you put a table to the side, the kid slides the laptop on it and they walk right through.”
Murphy said on mornings the detectors are being used, students will put their laptops on a table, walk through the detector, grab their laptop and keep moving.
School board member Cameron Nuessle asked if the detectors can detect a small pistol or pocket knife. Murphy said the school district can set the settings how they would like so it can detect those types of items.
Student and staff safety is a top priority for the Aiken County Board of Education.
Why this system
Nuessle then asked why this particular system was chosen and if the school district compared it to similar systems other school districts are using.
“The two main features that we have here are cost effectiveness and portability,” Murphy said. “These devices are truly portable, each one of them is 25 pounds. We can pick them up and carry them right now and have them deployed in the matter of a minute. No. 2, the cost of the system, according to market research the cost of the other unit to lease costs more than it would cost to buy these units. We’re looking at a cost factor of about four in what we would be saving money.”
Wren added that a third difference is that the other companies do not follow an international or national standard, which are dictated by the federal government for certain levels of weapon detection.
Recurring costs
Nuessle also inquired about staffing for the detectors and if there would be any recurring expenses to go with it.
“What I can say is there is no recurring cost,” Murphy said. “The training is free with the purchase, so we’ll have the training. There’s no licensing fee with this. We are planning right now on deploying it with existing personnel.”
School board members approved using the funds. Murphy said the district plans to have them in schools next month.