CANTON, Ohio — Many students in the Canton City School District will soon have to walk through metal detectors to start the school day.
School leaders approved the purchase of a weapons detection system for the district's high school and middle school buildings for $370,000.
Twenty-two walk-through detectors will be installed at multiple entrances at McKinley High School, STEAMM Academy at Hartford, Early College at Lehman, Crenshaw Middle School and the Timken Career Campus.
"In this day and age, you just never know, and so taking these safety precautions to make sure there are no weapons in the school, we think this was the next step," said Assistant Superintendent Jason Dixon. "We have had, unfortunately, incidents where weapons have been in the school, and very fortunately, we've been able to handle those swiftly and thoroughly, and again, we hope that this will deter that."
The weapons detectors are expected to be in place by the end of August.
District leaders realize there will be a disruption to the beginning of the school day initially but believe staff and students will adjust to the new routine.
"At McKinley, there will be six sets of these here in the morning with all hands on deck— student success coaches, our school resource officers, all of our principals and administrators will be here," Dixon said.
Dixon explained how the system would work while demonstrating a similar walk-through detector used by the Pro Football Hall of Fame for games.
The detectors have a variety of settings that an app can control. School administrators are planning to set the sensors to go off for weapons, including guns and knives, and not go off for things like keys and belt buckles.
"If it goes off, our head principal and our school resource officers will be right there ready to pull a student over, and we have a separate room where we'll be doing bag checks and whatnot," Dixon said.
Tim Snyder, who has a son in the district, said he welcomes the metal detectors.
"It's a sign of the times," he said. "I think it's a good idea. We've needed it for a while. It's just a good deterrent. Let kids know that they're gonna be checked," Snyder said.
However, some have raised concerns about the weapons detection system, including school board member Eric Resnick, who worries about searches.
"Searches are intrusive, and in places where we do searches are places where people's rights are taken away," Resnick said.
However, Resnick ultimately voted in favor of the metal detectors after hearing from kids who wanted an extra layer of protection.
"There were a couple of Canton City School students who asked me for metal detectors unsolicited," he said.
The district is also adding hand-held detectors at elementary schools, which were purchased through a $650,000 grant from the state for safety upgrades.
Dixon feels with an enhanced focus on safety in schools all over the country; the detectors make sense in Canton.
"We want to ensure safety and security. We say it's our top priority. Let's mean it."
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