All Duval County high schools will have walk-through metal detectors and hand “wands” for checking students for weapons in the coming months, district officials said Monday night.
Director of the district’s police force Micheal Edwards said the equipment will take 30 to 90 days to arrive and additional time to install.
It and some additional security cameras also being purchased will cost $2.5 million. The district has money to pay for it but is also applying for additional state funding for more security upgrades, he said.
The decision to buy metal detectors appears to reverse a long-held position held by Duval County Schools’ previous leaders, including former Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, who were reluctant to take that measure in part because of cost and a belief that relationships between students and school staff were better options for unearthing weapons in school.
Edwards said that since the mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school and more recent incidents in Jacksonville, including shootings involving Duval students and former students, things have changed.
Superintendent Diana Greene said each high school, though it has many entrances, will receive two walk-through metal detectors but it’s not yet clear where they will go yet.
“We’ll need the school to tell us how the traffic flow works and where students enter the building,” she said.
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