Extra protection or security theater? South Florida school districts implement big safety measures

South Florida schools are making some big security changes in the coming months to try to reduce weapons and violence on campus, with high-tech metal detectors generating cheers and clear backpacks generating scorn.

On Wednesday, the Palm Beach County School Board agreed to commit up to $2.25 million to install metal detectors in all high schools next school year — if an initial pilot in four schools is successful. The devices use artificial intelligence designed to catch weapons without creating long lines and frequent pat-downs.

Last week, Broward announced its own security change: all pre-kindergarten to 12th-grade students can only bring see-through backpacks, purses and lunch containers to school when the new school year starts.

Both districts cited a large amount of weapons brought to campus since students returned from the pandemic as a major factor. Broward has reported 113 instances of major weapons being brought on campus, including five firearms and 64 large knives. There also were 300 instances of more minor weapons, including smaller knives, BB guns, hand pellet guns and fireworks.

Palm Beach County schools did not provide comparable data. State data shows last year the district reported 204 instances of the more serious weapons.

Research on clear backpacks as well as the newer metal detectors is limited, and some security experts have labeled them “security theater,” designed to make parents think something is being done, regardless of whether it’s effective.

The clear-backpack plan is by far the less popular idea of the two, with many Broward parents blasting them on social media and emailing board members saying they are invasive, could increase theft and are unlikely to prevent weapons from being brought to school since kids can just hide weapons in clothing. Some School Board members now say they may reconsider the plan, which they agreed to during a closed-door security session.

The School Board hopes to persuade parents clear backpacks are a good idea at a town hall scheduled for 6 p.m. June 12 at Plantation High. A vote on whether to move forward is planned for June 13. The backpacks may even be free to all students, thanks to donations from agencies that work with the district, district administrator Valerie Wanza said.

In Palm Beach County, the reaction from parents and students to metal detectors has been positive to neutral, School Board members said.

“We may not be getting as much pushback since we have not said we’re not doing it at all the schools. We’re doing a pilot,” Palm Beach County School Board member Karen Brill told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Families don’t want clear backpacks. They feel that’s an infringement.”

Another factor making the metal detectors attractive is the machines are designed to catch guns and knives without creating a hectic TSA-like environment. The machines use artificial intelligence to identify guns, knives and other weapons but don’t require students to remove their cellphones, keys, belts or bags in most cases, district officials said.

“You should hardly even know they’re there as we train students not to bring items through them that are going to set them off,” Sarah Mooney, chief of the Palm Beach County school police department, told the  Sun Sentinel. “You just walk through and there should be no further delay, maybe a second per person.”

A pilot is expected to start at summer school and continue this fall at four high schools: Palm Beach Gardens High, John I. Leonard in Greenacres, Seminole Ridge in Loxahatchee and Palm Beach Lakes High in West Palm Beach. If successful, it may be used at all schools by January. The pilot was supposed to start this spring, but supply chain issues delayed the delivery of the equipment.

School Board member Alexandria Ayala, a John I. Leonard High alumnus, voiced frustration Wednesday when a couple of School Board members showed hesitancy about the program.

“The principal and the students deserve an opportunity to test this out,” Ayala said. “They’ve been asking for it and clamoring for it, and it’s for safety.”

Several board members said they want to see how well these work at the pilot schools before agreeing to expand to all high schools, so they were hesitant to commit to a $2.25 million contract with Ohio-based metal detector vendor CEIA USA.

Frank Barbieri, chairman of the Palm Beach County School Board, said he wants to see if the system is effective without causing huge delays at large schools, while Brill said she questioned whether the devices create a “false sense of security.”

But all board members agreed to move forward after Superintendent Mike Burke said he won’t buy the devices for the remaining high schools until after the district sees how well the pilot program works.

Some security experts say metal detectors, like clear backpacks, are mainly designed to make people feel safer.

“That’s the core definition of what we call security theater,” said security consultant Ken Trump, president of the Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security Services. “School districts see these as quick answers to a political or community relations problem, where they can point to the shiny objects and tell parents, ‘We’re doing something.'”

Although traditional metal detectors have been used in some schools for decades, districts started buying the new artificial intelligence-based systems in the last couple of years, said Nikita Ermolaev, a research engineer with IPVM, a Pennylvania-based company that tests security technology. He said at least 90 school districts have installed systems from the two largest vendors, including Duval County in Florida.

The devices are generally good at detecting firearms but more mixed when it comes to knives, particularly smaller ones, Ermolaev said. He said systems have adjustable security settings, with the highest settings being the most effective at detecting weapons but also the most prone to false alarms.

“That’s the tradeoff schools will have to consider,” Ermolaev said. “If you’re very concerned about knives being in your school, you’ll put the system on the highest setting. However, it will decrease the student experience. School districts are looking to find a solution to increase security but not so that it’s like airport security where everyone is being patted down.”

There have been some early problems. A school district in Utica, N.Y., spent $4 million on an artificial intelligence system from Evolv Technology, a different vendor than Palm Beach County is using. But that district scrapped the plan when it failed to catch a hunting knife used in a stabbing, according to the Intercept news site.

After the district increased the sensitivity settings to the highest levels, the system detected a 7-year-old student’s lunch box as a bomb, the Intercept reported.

But Palm Beach County officials hope that the systems, even if imperfect, will act as a deterrent to students bringing weapons in the first place.

Broward school officials also are considering adding more metal detectors at schools. The district currently has a program where police use metal-detection wands to randomly search bags in classes.

Board Chairwoman Lori Alhadeff said she supports exploring metal detection which uses “advanced digital sensors and artificial intelligence” to spot weapons. Such devices can help the district “identify weapons inside backpacks and help keep them out of schools,” she said.

As for clear backpacks, board members are receiving increasing pressure to drop the idea. While the proposal gained some traction in Texas school districts after the mass shooting in Uvalde, it’s been slow to catch on elsewhere. Alachua County planned to require them this year, but quickly dropped the idea amid parent backlash.

Members of Broward’s District Advisory Council, a parent-and-student group that provides input to the School Board, were nearly unanimous in their opposition to the backpacks.

“I think it’s kind of dumb,” said Jackson Harper, 17, a junior at Deerfield Beach High. “I know a lot of my friends hate it. They’re considering just not even caring about it. Just coming to school with a normal backpack.”

Although the school district may provide them for free, Plantation parent Nelson Rose said he “jumped the gun” and bought two clear backpacks.

“They’re absolute garbage,” Rose said. “You’ll end up buying two or three of these through the school year when they can buy one JanSport that can last for two or three years.”

Parents said they could find no research showing they are effective and found one study that indicated clear backpacks might increase violence because it signals to students they can’t be trusted. School district officials said a staff member visited Dallas, and it seemed to be working well.

However, Coral Springs parent Jacqui Luscombe said Dallas only used it for middle and high schools, not for students as young as pre-kindergarten. “They didn’t impose implied criminality on 3-year-olds,” she said.

Although the School Board agreed to the plan in closed session, and the school district sent out alerts to parents saying the decision had been made, it’s actually not final. The School Board still must vote on it during a June 13 meeting since it requires a change to the district’s code of conduct.

Several board members, including Brenda Fam and Sarah Leonardi, want to reconsider the decision. Others, including Torey Alston, Daniel Foganholi and Allen Zeman, said the board should stand firm on its decision.

“We say yes, we’re in 100%, and then we get those emails and we just turn right back around and leave the staff hanging like we didn’t make a decision,” Alston said at Tuesday’s meeting.

On Thursday, Foganholi tweeted out photos of weapons found that day in backpacks at Broward schools: two Airsoft guns in elementary schools and a knife in a middle school.

“We must take all necessary measures to create a safe learning environment for our future leaders” Fogaholi tweeted. ” Backpacks, metal detectors, more security … I’m ready to talk about it.”