Students have had to adjust to new protocols due to the activation of Evolv weapon detectors this week. The district has mandated these machines across all the high schools as an effort to increase campus security and safety.
Instead of walking any of a possible seven entrances before school, students now have just four options.
“It’s not going to hurt us, it’s just going to be really annoying for a good few months,” sophomore Scarlett Perez said.
The four entrances that students are allowed to enter in each morning include the door nearby the PAC, the Larry Cooper Athletic building, the front entrance, and door 37 in the North Lot.
These open at 6:45 a.m. and lock at 7:25 a.m. Four to seven staff members are at each entrance, ensuring the process runs as smoothly as possible. One staff member reminds students to remove items from their bags. Another staff member monitors items that can’t pass through the Evolv, while two more monitor an iPad connected to the Evolv machine and check backpacks at the resolution tables.
The detection system was busy on the first day as students learned what triggered it.
“Binders were the number one thing setting off the detectors,” assistant principal Michelle Wilson said. “Or if students forgot they had an umbrella in their bag, or forgetting they had a sunglasses case in their bag.”
Tuesday was the first time the machines were fully in effect, and the process went relatively smoothly besides the few incidents when a student couldn’t determine what was in their bag that continually set the detector off, holding up the line.
“I had this really big metal sign in my backpack, which probably wasn’t a great idea to have,” junior Cooper Wolocko said. “I had a white elephant gift exchange last semester, and it had been sitting in my backpack and I just hadn’t taken it out.”
The Evolv weapon detectors are specifically designed to be as non-invasive as possible, meaning you can walk through with everyday items like your phone, keys and wallet. But, students do have to remove larger items that contain metal like laptops, binders and spiral notebooks.
“I think a lot of the [baseball] boys were actually having problems with their belts,” junior Michael Segura said. “But I have a metal bat and three baseball belts and it didn’t go off. But all my friends were saying they had to take all their belts and bats out of their bag and put them to the side.”
The weapon detectors have received mixed reactions from the faculty and student body. Some deem the new addition to the school as necessary, while others see the process as more hassle than help.
“We thank everybody for their patience,” Wilson said. “We have amazing kids, and it’ll go much smoother now that we know the process.”
