I got this in my inbox on Wednesday.
Dear High School Families,
The most important thing HISD does each day is keep your student safe while they are at school. At each high school campus, HISD employs a layered approach to campus safety that brings together campus-based HISD PD officers, the Raptor Technologies school security platform, and most importantly, the vigilance of our staff and students. All of these pieces work together to keep your students safely in school, and dangerous contraband out of school.
As a District, we constantly evaluate the tools we have in place. District leaders and HISD PD leadership have determined weapons detection systems in our high schools are a necessary tool to keep our high school campuses safe and secure.
When fully implemented, all students, staff, and visitors entering all high school campuses will be screened by the Open Gate weapons detection systems. In order to ensure minimal disruption to student learning, we will begin in January and February by implementing weapons detection at one new campus each week. Implementation will begin at campuses where firearms have previously been found. Beginning in March, we will add multiple campuses each week, until all high school campuses have weapons detection systems fully operating by May 2025.
Our goal is to ensure that these systems do not interfere with the learning environment at our campuses, but there are things that will be different once we implement these systems:
- All students will need to enter their building through designated entry points each morning. This may be a change from current practice.
- Students, staff, and visitors will need to pass through the screening towers and remove their laptops from their bags or backpacks.
- When the system identifies a potentially prohibited item, the individual will receive secondary screening, typically a more thorough review of their backpacks, pockets, and other personal belongings.
Families at our high school campuses will be notified 1-2 weeks before weapons detection systems are implemented at their campus. That communication from your student’s principal will include all of the following:
- An invitation to a campus community meeting to answer your questions before the system is formally implemented.
- A detailed explanation of the new entry processes for students arriving in the morning, and visitors to the school during the day.
- More information about items other than weapons or contraband that may trigger secondary screening that students may want to avoid bringing to school.
All campuses will practice the new entry protocols before the weapons detection system is implemented at their campus to minimize delays and disruptions once the system is installed.
Please review the attached Frequently Asked Questions document for answers to some initial questions, and plan to attend your campus’ information session when it is scheduled.
See here for the background. The FAQ mentioned above was linked in the email and it can be found here. It mostly restated what was in the main message, but it did include a link to a brief YouTube video, made by the Lee County school district, that showed how this works (that district appears to be using this for the lower grades as well). It notes that NRG Stadium uses OpenGate screening devices, and added this little bit extra:
What happens if the weapons detection system alarms for a suspicious item?
Answer: Weapon detection systems are primarily screening for firearms; however, they will alarm for other items as well. If an individual triggers an alarm, they will receive additional screening to determine the nature of the item that triggered the alarm. In many cases, secondary screening will determine there is no prohibited item and the individual will enter the building. If secondary screening reveals a prohibited item, school staff will work with HISD PD to determine the next steps.
What items may trigger an alarm other than firearms?
A: The systems in HISD will be set to alert to a certain trigger. As such, car keys, loose change, cell phones, etc should not trigger an alert from the system. Laptops, tablets, and other large metal objects may cause the system to alert. When this happens, individuals will receive additional screening, the item(s) will be cleared, and the individual will be allowed to enter the building.
So it doesn’t really say what else might trigger the system to alert. I think we can all infer that they’re also looking for knives, but beyond that it’s unclear. I suspect they just don’t want to tip their hand at this time.
As I said, I’m not surprised by any of this and I don’t think it’s worth fussing about. It is very much worth asking what this costs, now and going forward, and I would expect students at the high schools should plan for it to take longer to get in their buildings every day, because there’s no way this won’t slow things down significantly. If you have more questions, show up at the community meeting when your school announces the installation at their campus and ask your principal about it.