Augusta County Schools purchase more weapons detectors at approximately $148,000

VERONA — The Augusta County School Board unanimously approved spending approximately $148,000 on eight additional weapons detectors for school buildings at its Thursday night meeting.

The money is from a one-time school safety and security grant using both state and federal funds that totaled $149,707.35. The award is based on the total number of schools, composite index, number of buses, responses to state safety surveys, and student enrollment, according to Deputy Superintendent Doug Shifflett.

Each unit is estimated to cost $18,500, including batteries, chargers, stabilizing plates, test pieces, and shipping, per Shifflett. The school division will decide how to use the grant money that remains after purchasing the units, Shifflett said.

He told the board that the grant funds may be used for equipment purchases and installations, software purchases, planning, and on-site training to improve the safety and security of public school buildings.

Once the units are purchased, all Augusta County middle and high schools will have weapon detectors at their school to be used at entrances and as needed for after-school events, per Shifflett. That includes the two new middle schools opening in August.

A spokesperson for the school division told The News Leader the detectors were used at after-school activities on a limited basis during the most recent school year.

But are schools safer because of the units?

School safety professional calls weapons detectors 'security theater'

Last summer, when Augusta County Public Schools purchased its first such units, The News Leader reached out to Ken Trump, the president of National School Safety and Security Services. Trump has spent 30 years in the school security business.

He said such units don't necessarily make schools safer, but simply give the appearance of a safer school.

"What we're seeing is many school districts, if not most, are purchasing these weapon detection systems to solve a political or school community relations problem as much, if not more so, than a school safety problem," said Trump.

Trump said many school officials are under enormous pressure to make sure their schools are as safe as possible, and one way, maybe the easiest way, to do that is by getting "shiny objects that you can point to." It's something parents can see.

And if there isn't a system at doors whenever people are entering the building, including sporting events, band concerts and other after-school activities, then they don't really help.

"In essence that's what we call security theater," Trump said. "It creates the perception, the feeling of increased safety but it doesn't necessarily make you safer."

Nikita Ermolaev, a research engineer with the surveillance research group IPVM, told The News Leader in July 2023 that the use of the term weapons detectors is simply a marketing ploy and his company refers to the units as smarter metal detectors.

“The reason why we believe that calling the system a weapon detector is misleading is because one can build a weapon that does not have any metallic objects in them and it will easily go through the system without being detected,” Ermolaev said. “Because these systems are designed to find metallic targets.”

Plastic and liquid explosives or other weapons with minimal metal can avoid detection, he said.

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— Patrick Hite is a reporter at The News Leader. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Instagram @hitepatrick . Subscribe to us at newsleader.com

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Augusta County Schools purchase more weapons detectors at approximately $148,000