Canton school District Welcomes Walk-Through metal detectors to Prevent School Shootings

Canton school District Welcomes Walk-Through metal detectors to Prevent School Shootings

Mysja Blackshear

 

Firearms are now the leading cause of death in schools. Canton City Schools are taking preventative measures to ensure proper school safety by installing weapon detectors for the district’s high school and middle schools.

 

With funding from the Canton City School Board, the district is spending $370,000 for the purchase of 22 cordless OPENGATE Concealed Weapons Detection which is by Communication Technologies. There will be multiple detectors at several entrances at the STEAMM Academy at Hartford, McKinley High School, Early College at Lehman, Crenshaw Middle School and at the Downtown Timken Career Campus. “Having these metal detectors in schools will provide a safer environment for students and faculty,” said assistant principal Sean Strangers.

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“School safety is our priority here at McKinley. We don’t have our metal detectors installed yet, but we can assure you that we have the whole building on lockdown and security on standby,” he also said.

 

Stranger used the nearby Pro Hall of Fame’s metal detectors to demonstrate and explain how a walk through would go. Each morning students will enter one by one with a staff member or security on standby. The staff members will have a hand-held metal detector for ensured safety. 

 

“Six weapon detectors will be set in the school,” he said.

 

Although, there is still a rise in school shootings, Canton City hasn’t had any major incidents but they are supporting decreasing the opportunities of school shootings. As of Nov 9th, there have been 71 school shootings in the United states this year according to CNN’S analysis of reports.

 

He said that faculty will be able to control the weapon detectors through the settings on the CEIA OPENGATE app.

 

“Guns, knives, anything metal will be detected and if it does go off then our security and the head principal will pull the student over into a separate area to do a bag check, “ he stated.

 

“Luckily no one was harmed but we’ve had situations where there was a gun found in the school which is why we take these precautions to keep our students and faculty safe,” said Strangers

 

The State also granted Canton City District with an additional $650,000 from the state to upgrade the elementary security system with hand detectors along with the walkthrough detectors.

 

Other schools like Lehman Middle School currently have two sets of detectors and McKinley High School have six sets. While students and faculty are adjusting to the new system, some worry that the weapon detectors won’t be able to catch every weapon. Bag searches are a priority to provide safety according to Strangers. Any suspicion or detection will cause faculty to do a bag search to ensure security.

 

“I’ve had kids state their uncertainties about if the detectors will protect them but as I tell them we are taking preventative measures to protect the whole building and to not try not to worry,” said Lehman middle school faculty Pam Walker.