Metal detectors coming to CCSD schools as more weapons being found

The Clark County School District is rolling out metal detectors at select schools this fall with hopes of reducing the number of weapons brought onto its campuses, school officials said Wednesday.

District officials have frequently said that metal detectors would cause major bottlenecks at school entrances, but improved technology has allowed more efficient flow of people through walk-through detectors, CCSD Police Chief Mike Blackeye said.

They will debut in August at the start of the new school year at select campuses.

“We’re hoping not to create any type of obstacles to getting our kids into school on time,” Blackeye said. “That’s one of the biggest things that had prevented us over the years in getting metal detectors on our campuses.”

Through April, CCSDPD had taken 30 guns off of campuses, according to department data — mostly from students, and often, loaded, police said. School police seized33 guns last school year, Blackeye said.

“Those are the ones we caught,” Superintendent Jesus Jara said. “Are there more? Potentially.”

Officers have also collected at least 35 BB guns and 182 knives this year, which are “unacceptable numbers for me as an educator and as a father,” Jara added.

District spokesman Tod Story said CCSD will acquire walk-through metal detectors for the pilot program, but all other details, including which schools will try out the metal detectors, are to be determined.

Around this time last year, CCSD piloted wearable instant alert systems — or panic buttons — at nine high schools before adopting the technology districtwide. It also started planning for an upgrade of all campus security, including surveillance cameras, perimeter fencing and single points of entry, districtwide, starting with the high schools.

The alert systems, which allow any school employee to trigger a lockdown or call for help by pressing a button on a credit card-sized badge, and other security improvements came about after a violent school year that was punctuated by a brutal classroom attack of a teacher at Eldorado High School in April 2022. A then-16-year-old student was arrested and has since pleaded guilty to attempted murder, attempted sexual assault and battery with use of a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm.

CCSD has spent or budgeted $79.4 million for security upgrades at about 50 of its high schools, the district told state lawmakers. This does not include the planned metal detectors; the costs of those are not yet known.

CCSD has been roiled by violence and threats over the past few days. On Monday, a stray bullet struck a campus security monitor at Ed Von Tobel Middle School; the 18-year-old alleged gunman is now in jail on attempted murder and other charges.

Jara said that student behavior echoes what happens outside of school.

“While we’re doing everything to protect our students, school safety is a community issue that we must continue to work with our partners (on), and I know that we are,” he said.

Blackeye said that about five of the confiscated guns were brought from home, and the youngest children to bring guns to school this year were 6 and 10 years old. He asked parents to secure their guns if they own them, check their children’s backpacks, and know what their kids are doing, with whom, and where.

That includes on social media, where threats get passed around. The district said in a statement this week that it has been tracking “dozens of reports of vague social media threats” over the past few days. The district said investigators have determined that the threats are unsubstantiated, and most appear to be similar, vague, screen-captured posts that are recirculated through social media platforms. They are often created by people outside of the area “with the intent of disrupting learning.”

However, CCSD takes threats seriously.

“Threats are not joking matters,” the district said in its statement.

 

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