GREEN BAY (WLUK) — School safety continues to be top of mind for the Green Bay Area Public School District, and on Monday night, the board was presented with another recommendation.
In an ongoing effort to keep students and staff safe, the district is now considering a pilot program for weapon detection systems.
“I recommend that the board direct district leadership to pilot one or more of the portable weapon detection systems for a period of time sufficient to evaluate three different areas,” said GBAPS Superintendent Vicki Bayer.
Those three areas are:
- Operational fidelity
- Equipment effectiveness
- Impact on school climate and safety
“How you outlined what we are going to evaluate and what data this will generate, it checks a lot of boxes for me,” said Board President James Lyerly.
It’s part of a larger safety discussion that began after a Preble High School student brought a loaded handgun and ammunition to school in September.
The program would pilot the systems at each of the four high schools at separate times. Although Bayer recommended the program, she did acknowledge it wouldn’t solve everything.
“When it comes to weapon detection systems, you can’t rely on them as the sole solution. You must have in place a variety of security measures to support the students and staff in our schools,” she said.
According to the district’s chief operations officer, initial feedback would indicate the district would incur purchasing and training costs to pilot the systems.
“I just need to see what it’s going to cost and if that’s really a point of negotiation or something that we need to push back on, or if we need to change vendors that we’re looking at as far as a pilot program,” said Lyerly.
Bayer did add that she believes this project could qualify for a safety grant. As part of her recommendation, the board would vote on this at its next meeting.
Comments