Weapons Detection System Implemented at NHS

Newtown High School is implementing weapons detectors at the main entrance to the school building during fall. The detectors were received as a restricted donation from the Sandy Hook School Foundation to the Board of Education. 

The Board of Education voted 4-3 on October 7th to accept the restricted gift of $120,000 explicitly to purchase a weapons detector system. The Board’s vote was contingent on the collection of community data and a clear implementation plan. There were also other opportunities for the Newtown community to vote, including a NHS student survey, NHS Student Focus Groups, NPS Parent Survey, Board of Education Meetings, and open CEIA Hours.

“We took the summer to do a little bit more training on it and get people a little bit more exposed. We offered two times for people to come by and see it working in action,” NHS principal Dr. Longobucco said.

The first time the weapons detector appeared in action was at Blue and Gold Stadium during a football game September 10th. The estimated start date for the weapons detectors to be fully implemented within the main entrance for October 1st. There will be 3 operational stations manned by security guards and administrators who have been explicitly trained for these weapons directors.

When walking into the school building through the weapons detectors, students will have to walk with their bag in the center of the body. Students will have to remove their chromebook or laptop, 3 ring binders, metal pencil cases, and metal eyeglass cases from their bag. Although students won’t have to remove their phones, airpods, and or metal water bottles when walking through. 

“The hope is that as few people ‘go off’ as possible. Because the understanding is that all of our students here are doing the right thing and they’re bringing the right things, and this is an added layer of protection for anybody who is coming into our building, so that we know in advance if somebody has something in their bag they shouldn’t,” Dr. Longobucco said.

Currently, the junior parking lot is not full, so students haven’t been given spaces in the back F wing parking lot yet. In the future, there will be a fourth metal detector by the F wing entrance so students will be able to walk in through that door as well.

“We feel like it instills fear rather than actually helping. It’s kind of comparable to school lock down drills. We have legislation on lock down drills to make them less jarring for children because a lot of times they could raise questions in kids' heads that they wouldn’t have otherwise,” Chair of Junior National Action Alliance Lahja Kurjiaka said. 

The JNAA opposes the weapons detectors because of the way they believe students will react to having to see them. 

“It’s important to be vigilant, but you shouldn’t be scared,” Kurjiaka said. 

This new process will take patience from everybody in the school.

“We’ve talked to several schools who have implemented this and they say that it takes everybody about a week for everybody to really get into the practice of it,” Dr. Longobucco said.

The only learning curve students will have to face is the action of walking into the school through the two poles, taking the chromebook out of their bag, passing it forward, and walking through. 

While administrators can view the detectors as an added layer of protection, some students are still trying to understand what their presence means. To better understand what students can expect from security measures, it can help to look beyond the school and towards other facilities.

“I had always considered a hospital to be a relatively safe place to work, so it piqued my curiosity about whether there was more happening that I wasn’t aware of. It also made me question my own level of safety while working there,” worker at Danbury Hospital Dana Shicker said. While concerns about security measures can vary among individuals, their impact can also depend on how they are introduced.

“I realised that the hospital was simply taking advantage of available technology in a proactive effort to enhance the safety and security of everyone in the facility. Once I was able to reframe my perspective in that way, I noticed that my nervousness about it lessened and was replaced by a greater sense of security,” Shicker said.