SUFFOLK, Va - The Suffolk Public School District is ramping up school security. The district will have weapon detection systems in all of its schools for the 2023-2024 school year.
"It’s a great idea," one Suffolk parent said. "There’s too much going on nowadays."
News 3's Leondra Head sat down with Dr. Rodney Brown, Chief of Administrative service for Suffolk Public Schools, and David LeFevre, a student services coordinator for Suffolk Public Schools.
They say the weapon detection systems will be at all school entrances in all of the district's schools.
"No kid or adult will enter this building without walking through a weapon detection system," Brown said.
The district said they are improving school safety by making all school security officers full-time. At the beginning of last school year, most of them were part-time. Some of the school security officers will be tasked with manning the systems.
The district says other school staff will also man the systems.
"Those are gonna be our school safety monitors who will be monitoring the systems," LeFevre said. "We have T.A’s, administrators and school resource officers."
Within the last year, Suffolk Public Schools had at least three incidents of students bringing guns to school. Brown said those incidents prompted the district to add weapon detection systems.
"None of those weapons were caught with a weapons detection system," Brown said. "We didn’t have them in place at the time. Someone reported it. Now a kid is going to think twice before trying to bring a weapon in the building."
"I’m a parent," said Vickie Eley. "I have a senior at Kings Fork High School and a grand baby in elementary school. With gun violence and kids getting way with things, we need to be safe. We don’t know what they are bringing into these book bags and backpacks."
Newport News school district also add weapon detection systems after the Richneck school shooting.
"What the Richneck shooting did was alerted us and increased our awareness," Dr. Brown said.
"In Newport news, they got the clear bookbags," another Suffolk parent said. "I think all the kids should do that everywhere."
The school district says the weapon detection systems were already up in some high schools. Now they will be in all Suffolk public schools.
