Metro Nashville To Add Weapons Detection Systems To District Middle Schools

Image Credit: evolv.com

The Tennessee Conservative Staff –

The Metro Nashville School Board voted unanimously to install weapons detection systems in all middle schools in the district, a security measure already used in area high schools.

MNPS installed the Evolv system, which uses AI to detect potential threats, after the January shooting at Antioch High School that resulted in the death of one student and injury of another.

Two students have been arrested for having guns at area schools since the technology was installed. An 18-year-old student was arrested at Antioch High after the scanner detected a loaded handgun in his backpack. A 17-year-old student at Maplewood High School was also arrested after being found with a loaded semiautomatic pistol.

Chair Freda Player said, “Our most vulnerable and our most innocent, we have to go through this process to protect our children.”

Not everyone is in favor of implementing the technology at the lower grade level, however, with some parents arguing that younger students are not as likely to bring a weapon to school as an older student.

Administrators disagree, saying this is a necessary step in ensuring a safe learning environment for all students. MNPS Director of Schools Dr. Adrienne Battle recalled her own personal experience with Nashville’s first school shooting at JT Moore Middle in 1994.

“So I remember it very vividly as a middle school student and not a high school student,” Battle stated.

Others, including student board members, expressed concern over exposing middle school students to the need for school safety plans or that encountering the technology would be “intimidating.”

School board member Dr. Berthena Nabaa-McKinney countered, however, that most of these students are already well aware of the possibility of school safety issues.

“Those are conversations that are already happening in homes … that are happening in schools with active shooter drills,” Nabaa-McKinney stated. “Unfortunately, we are in an environment where this has become our new norm.”

A $1.3 million safety grant will be used to install the technology initially, with a price tag of $1 million annually to maintain the system. The district is currently planning to begin adding the systems on October 12, installing them at two schools per week and providing training on how to effectively use them.