FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – School leaders in Broward County are discussing using metal detectors to screen for weapons and other dangerous objects.
It was the first discussion of an emergency policy, giving officials another tool to help prevent weapons from making it into schools.
Throughout the years we’ve seen multiple instances of weapons making it onto school campuses in South Florida, leading to frantic parents and terrified students.
At their meeting on Wednesday, the Broward County School Board discussed, for the very first time, a new policy giving them the ability to use handheld metal detectors to screen anyone trying to enter a school district property.
School board member and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School parent Lori Alhadeff said while she knows the policy couldn’t have prevented the deadly attack at MSD, it is a good tool for the district to have.
“We have to find a way to prevent the guns and weapons from getting into our schools,” she said. “As a parent, as a mother with two kids in our schools, it definitely adds a layer of comfort to know that we are going to be doing wanding and checking to make sure there are not guns or weapons in kids backpacks or on them, and this is a layer of protection to make our schools safer.”
School board member Debbi Hixon, whose husband was killed during the MSD shooting, agrees.
“It’s a deterrent so someone’s going to know that there is the chance that they’re going to get caught,” Hixon said.
The policy states that metal detectors may be used to screen people for firearms and other objects which are prohibited on school district property.
It also says anyone who refuses to submit to a search will be subject to disciplinary action or can be kicked off campus.
Wednesday’s meeting was just a first discussion, so no votes were actually taken yet.
Local 10 News reached out to Miami-Dade Public Schools to ask if they planned to do something similar. They said they already have a random metal detection screening policy and will continue to use it.