Myth vs Reality - Detectors

Why Adding Metal Detectors and Gun Detection Tech is Security Theater

This is the third article in a series. To read the first article, click here. For the second, click here.

There has been a move in recent years - more so than in previous years - to install metal and gun detectors at key entrances to schools in an attempt to prevent students from carrying weapons into their buildings. These technologies hit home when the district in which I taught for 15 years before my retirement added gun detection devices to every school in the county. The price tag was substantial, especially for a cash-strapped area (my county is one of the poorest in North Carolina) in an expensive economy.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen post-active-shooter-event social media comments that declare, “They need metal detectors in every school in the country,” as if these devices were some sort of safety and security panacea.

Don’t get me wrong: these devices are useful, but only in a system where safety and security measures are layered and constantly monitored for their effectiveness. Below, I’ll address several of the problems with the myth: “Adding metal detectors or gun detection systems will reduce school shootings.”

Expense

Depending on the product the district purchases, the cost of metal detectors and weapons detection units can range from about $10,000 to $120,000 per unit. Metal detectors come in at the lower end of that spectrum as they don’t require anything more than a set of human eyeballs to observe the unit and the students passing through it. Still, if a district purchases four of these units for every school, the cost can add up in a hurry. In my little district in eastern North Carolina, that price tag would be $800,000 for metal detectors alone (four units for 20 schools).

Weapon-detection systems are more complex and come with the added expense of a monthly service package subscription that may include safety apps, AI camera technologies, and data analytics. These subscriptions can cost $2000-3000 per unit per month with a multi-year lease. Nearly half a million bucks in monitoring fees for four doors for four years is a pretty steep price tag for many school districts. That is, of course, for just one school. The more schools a district serves, the greater the expense.

Grants can help defray the cost of these units, so expense ranks fairly low on my list of issues with this technology. However, grants do run out and the money dries up. When that happens, a school is either forced to find funding for these units or realize that they (the schools) now possess very expensive door holders.

Efficiency

Schools are busy places. The morning hustle and bustle of getting students from outside to inside is already a cumbersome process - especially at the elementary level. Adding detection technologies only adds to the difficulty of the entry process. The average school population is 526 students/school. There are, of course, far more densely populated schools in the country. One of the largest in-person public schools in the country boasts a population of nearly 17,000 kids. Imagine trying to get that many people through even 20 scanning units every morning.

When every student and teacher is required to pass through the detection system before being allowed to walk the halls, the time commitment to scan and check those people can be enormous. Funneling hundreds or thousands of people through just a few doors could conceivably take hours, especially if there is a high-threat potential for students bringing weapons to campus.

Evasion

Evading door-based technologies is absurdly simple. Students will just use a door that isn’t monitored. When I was a teenager in high school, I knew about 15 different ways to get into my school building unimpeded by teachers or other students. I may or may not have brought contraband items into the school via those entrances.

It’s not hard. Anyone can do it.

I won’t get into the details of how to evade detection in this article (I’m not in the habit of offering too many ideas for those who would exploit a school’s vulnerabilities). But anyone with a few minutes of thought and reflection on their own schooling experiences could probably share plenty of details on how they would have snuck something into school that didn’t belong there. If a person wants vengeance, notoriety, or carnage bad enough, (s)he will find a way around the scanners at the main entrances.

Safety

In some cases, a kid may not have the least concern about the manned scanning units at the main entrance. There are two ways to look at this:

1 - Our rampage shooter arrives at school and sees a large crowd of kids waiting to make their way through the scanning devices.

2- Our rampage shooter gets flagged going through the scanner.

In the first case, the shooter is offered a substantial victim pool before (s)he ever enters the building. In the second, the threat is already in the building. Who is going to stop him/her? The unarmed teacher manning the scanner? That’s an unenviable position for the teacher, to say the least.

In Summary

Metal detectors and gun scanning technology have their place, but that place may not be your kids’ schools.

I often hear: “If the TSA can scan thousands of people per day at an airport, schools can do it too.”

Well, no. They can’t.

TSA checkpoints don’t have a 30-minute window between arrival time and the first-period bell to get everyone into the loading terminal. Passengers can arrive hours before their flights and pass through the TSA checkpoint at any time between arrival and boarding.

Schools have a small window - usually less than an hour - between the first students arriving and the school day starting. For a small school, this window might be sufficient to scan every kid and check those who set off the scanner. For schools with large populations, it can be a nightmare. Some kids who eat school breakfast before classes begin may find themselves going hungry due to delays at the checkpoint.

Unfortunately, detection hardware is more “security theater” than a true piece of safety equipment. It gives parents, students, and staff a sense of security, which may not be grounded in reality, while simultaneously giving district admin legal cover should the unthinkable happen in one of their buildings.

To keep kids safe in schools, they and their school leaders need training. Admin needs admin-specific training, teachers need teacher-specific training, and students need student-specific training. Additional staff (substitutes, secretaries, custodians, school nurses, teacher assistants, and others) need training as well. If schools are going to spend money on safety, they should spend it on their people first.

Be safe.