Weapons detection pilot project begins Wednesday in the South

Students entering South Salem High School will go through weapon detectors starting Wednesday morning.

The school is testing two weapon detection systems through the end of the school year as part of a district effort to decide whether they should be installed in all middle and high schools.

District officials announced the decision earlier this month but only indicated that the pilot project would begin in late May.

District officials announced the start date for the pilot in a message to South employees, students and families on Friday.

“Students will be required to go through a weapons detection system every time they enter the building, before school and throughout the school day, unless they have been with a teacher who supervises their class outside the building,” the post said.

The school has approximately 2,200 students and 85 exterior doors.

The message included a pre-pilot survey asking recipients to list and rank their concerns about using gun detectors, and to indicate how the detectors would affect them in feeling welcome and safe at home. 'school. The project has so far garnered about 750 responses and remains open, district spokesman Aaron Harada said.

Security workers were in the south Tuesday unpacking the new detectors and installing them for deployment.

Students will generally be able to walk through the detector without removing their backpacks or having their bags x-rayed, the post states. But some items, including Chromebooks and laptops, umbrellas, eyeglass cases and large notebooks or three-ring binders, will need to be handed over to school staff as students pass through.

“The metal column on Chromebooks, laptops, and large laptops will trigger the detector's alert because the shape and density of the metal column is similar to that of a potential weapon,” the message states.

Baldridge and Tara Romine, South's principal, said students will not be searched or forced to remove their clothes during the pilot.

If a detector alerts, the student will be asked to perform their own pat-down, empty their pockets or open their own bag to find what triggered the alert. This is the procedure the district currently uses to check students for weapons if they receive a report or concern.

District leaders were privately discussing gun detectors at the start of the school year, but a March 7 shooting involving several high school students at Bush's Pasture Park was a catalyst for moving forward with a pilot project. The detector proposal drew mixed reactions from the public and elected school board members.

Superintendent Andrea Castañeda and Chris Baldridge, the district's director of security and risk management, previously told the Salem Reporter that they would use the pilot project to evaluate whether the detectors work to prevent weapons from entering the school and whether compromises – such as possible delays in students arriving to class or students feeling unsafe or unwelcome at school – are acceptable.

The pilot tests systems from two companies, Evolv and OPENGATE, manufactured by security company CEIA USA. The cost of materials for the pilot project is approximately $133,000.

That money will come from a settlement the district received from Juul in a lawsuit over the company's promotion of vaping devices to young people.

The detectors have different sensitivity settings that can be used to detect only firearms or other metal objects, including vape pens.

District officials declined to say what settings they intend to use for the detectors during the pilot.

The move is part of a broader effort to make school buildings more secure this spring, which also included reducing the number of doors students can use during the school day and film covering windows so people don't cannot see inside the building.

The pilot project in South will likely continue when classes resume in the fall and will inform Castañeda's decision on whether to install gun detectors at other middle and high schools in the district.

Contact journalist Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.

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