Fairmont Senior High School installs weapon detection system

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (WBOY) — This week, Fairmont Senior High School became the first school in Marion County to enable the second phase of its security system upgrade through a new weapon detection system.

Thanks to a partnership with Rank One Computing, Fairmont Senior High School’s security cameras can now detect if the people who walk in front of them potentially have weapons on their person. If the system detects a potential threat, the school’s Police Resource Officer is notified and they can respond from there.

”What’s unique about this technology that we’ve used with facial recognition is—it is at the point of entry of the building and so it scans someone before they enter the building and sends off an alert,” Marion County Superintendent Donna Heston said. “It goes beyond looking at the face and running it through the system, but it also looks at their body to see if there is a weapon detected.”

Heston said the goal is to have this system installed across all schools in the county, similar to how facial recognition software was installed at schools across the county during phase one.

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