The touch-free body scanners, which are meant to detect and deter hidden guns, are being installed at Guilford County Schools' traditional high schools.
"They should be in place prior to the open house for the high schools, so that students will be able to see it before they actually have to walk through on a school day and all that stress that first day of school," said Mike Richey, the district's director of emergency management.
The first day of school for traditional schools is Aug. 29.
Richey said the district is spending $800,000 to lease 43 scanners for the 19 schools for one year. That money comes from the federal COVID-19 relief dollars the district has received. Richey said there is funding from the same source for the year after, but the school board will have to find additional funds if the district wants to continue beyond that.
The scanner installation will take place over the next three to four weeks, Richey said. He said they will also be rolling out communications to students to let them know what to expect.
The scanners were tested at Smith and High Point Central high schools this summer. Richey called that trial period successful because the district was able to screen students with a minimum of disruption to their day and environment.
He said it has been interesting to see how students have adapted to the scanners. For example, he said, students are learning to pull their glasses cases, which are often metal, out of their packs so they can walk through with them in their hands. If the case sets off the device's warning system, the school staff member can tell immediately it's the eyeglass case in their hand that's being visually highlighted by the device's artificial intelligence and wave them along.
"They get going through it pretty quick," Richey said of the students.
Richey said that 84 percent of all school shooting situations are high-school related, so the district is focusing on high schools for now, but could consider middle schools later.
"We will always be evaluating to see how we can make this system work the best, how we can make it work the most efficiently, and if that does involve hiring folks, we'll learn that and put that forward as well," he said.
The Evolv scanners are still new technology and not widely used by school districts, but one other major North Carolina school district, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, started trying out the scanners this spring.
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools is trying a different tack. The district bought portable metal detectors to be used not on a daily basis, but for events and in situations of special need.
©2022 the News & Record (Greensboro, N.C.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
