PHOENIX — When school began on August 4 for the Phoenix Union High School District (PXU), students walked into high school campuses with a new protocol: walking through weapons detectors.
Weapons detectors are different than metal detectors, whereas the latter detects all metals. The weapons detectors the district is using, GXC Inc.’s CEIA OPENGATE system, can calibrate sensitivity levels to detect certain weapons, including knives and firearms.
The district piloted the weapons detectors at two schools last school year before rolling it out to all 19 school campuses that have students on them. They saw a decrease in the number of weapons making it onto campus in the pilot.
"I just feel more secure here on campus compared to last year or the year before," said Anthony Castro, a junior at Alhambra High School.
The district joins others that also now have weapons detectors. That includes Mesa Public Schools, Agua Fria Union High School District, Gilbert Public Schools and more.
All four districts, including Phoenix Union, told ABC15 that since they implemented the weapons detectors, they have not found any weapons on students, whereas in years before, they’ve had some incidents.
"I know sometimes it feels like a discomfort because it can give you a sense of feeling unsafe that we have to have these in place, but I believe having them in place relieves that anxiety and that fear that students and some staff and parents have. We all want to send our kids to a safe place,” said Veronica Leroux, a teacher at Alhambra High.
As students walk through the detectors, they do have to take out their laptops, binders and sometimes eyelash curlers and eyeglass holder cases, as certain metals in those will cause the detectors to go off.
If a student ends up triggering the detector, students will have to go through a secondary search with school security staff searching their backpacks. PXU said if a weapon is found, it’ll be confiscated, and police will be notified. Students can face suspension as well as expulsion, per their student code of conduct.
A PXU spokesperson said it cost $1.3 million for the weapons detectors, which came out of their capital budget.
However, not every school district has weapons detectors.
This week, the Buckeye Union High School District said two male students from Estrella Foothills High School were arrested for posting photos with guns on campus after school let out.
Buckeye Union Superintendent Steve Bebee told ABC15 they were alerted by the district’s anonymous alert system of the social media posts. Bebee said a handgun in one of the photos was found by police and in the student’s possession in their home.
When ABC15 asked Bebee about any considerations of weapons detectors, he said the district does not have them due to the costs associated as well as the manpower it’d take for each campus.
"We have had conversation about them but again without a grant or the financial means to purchase them or install them we cannot move in that direction,” Bebee said.
However, the district does have upgraded surveillance cameras with AI capabilities that helped them identify the two students arrested.
Another district, the Tolleson Union High School District, doesn’t have weapons detectors; however, Superintendent Jeremy Calles said they’re looking into getting “AI weapons detectors as early as next semester."
Tolleson Union has cameras in place that have AI capabilities, which Calles said was used to help detect and find eight weapons violations last year in conjunction with its “report, don’t repost” campaign.
