Eventually, students will likely pass through detectors daily when entering school, according to P-T High School Principal Tony Aquilio and District Public Safety Director Joe Gajdos.
Aquilio said school-wide weapon detectors will be a topic of discussion this summer and could be a possibility as early as next school year.
“I don’t want to guarantee anything, but yes, they have worked well for our sporting events. If things line up and we have the financial means to do it, I don’t see why we wouldn’t do it,” Aquilio said.
Weapon detectors, an advanced version of metal detectors, can measure and analyze the shapes and sizes of objects to identify possible weapons with customizable sensitivity settings. These detectors will not register typical metal items like phones and keys as threats.
Surrounding school districts such as Hempfield Area, Franklin Regional, Plum and many Pittsburgh Public Schools already require students to enter through weapon detectors daily.
“We would visit multiple schools and get an idea of what works and what doesn’t before rolling anything out,” Aquilio said.
P-T has used weapon detectors at the entrances of athletic events since last year and required every entrant to pass through the system before entering athletic facilities.
“We wanted to test them out first, see how they work and develop a plan of how we could possibly use them in the future,” Aquilio said.
Some students said that they would feel more comfortable in school with such detectors.
“Nobody uses their lockers, and nobody’s backpacks are clear. They could have anything in there. There’s no real checks of what’s in students’ backpacks,” sophomore Elle Lejune said. “I feel mostly safe, but not always.”
Lejune added that weapon detectors would give her peace of mind.
“I feel like some people might find [weapon detectors] annoying or inconvenient, but I would hope most students would find it for the common good,” Lejune said. “We’ve gone to a lot of schools for field trips, and a lot of them have metal detectors. It’s not too annoying in my opinion.”
One of the main obstacles the district faces is the cost of the detectors, maintenance, staffing and training. Aquilio said that the detectors have been considered in the past, but financial burdens limited the plans.
P-T’s current eight detectors were secured through a grant from Assistant Superintendent Tiffany Nix. Hempfield Area spent over $100,000 purchasing six new OpenGate weapon detectors in July 2024.
Another concern for some is the additional wait times to enter the school.
“A lot of people fear that there are long lines at entrances, which in itself is a safety issue. But through our trials with athletic events, we’ve found there are no long lines, and people go through them pretty quickly with little delay,” Aquilio said.
If added, Aquilio said entrances would be adjusted slightly depending on the number of staff and detectors available.
According to a P-T Board Policy adopted last year, detectors can be used for “as-needed screenings,” such as recent violence in the area or special events, like athletic events or dignitary visits. The superintendent or building administrator may also conduct random screenings on randomly chosen days.
If a weapon were to enter the school and pose a threat, a lockdown procedure would commence.
Along with panic alarms for the office areas that directly connect to police, as well as alert systems through announcements, the school recently started using Navigate360. The online platform app also keeps a live count digitally of where students are and who is accounted for in case of emergency situations such as a lockdown or evacuation.
“We actually just got a pilot program, and we’re trying it for the rest of the school year with staff. With it, there’s a panic alarm that every teacher would have on their personal devices or work devices that they could trigger an alarm,” Aquilio said.
During the in-service day on March 16, teachers will be trained on how to use the system.
SmartPass, a digital hall pass system implemented this year at P-T, also has a similar function, but Aquilio said it has not been used yet since Navigate360 appears to be a better alternative.
If a weapon is found on school property, parents/guardians and employees must be notified, such as on Feb. 20, when a student was found with a pocket knife, resulting in an email and ParentSquare message from the district. This notice complied with Act 44 issued on Jan. 7 by the Commonwealth of PA, mandating the parental and employee notification if weapons are found on school property.
Currently, the High School attempts to prevent weapons or non-students from entering by monitoring the six entrances in the morning.
“We have staff at all of our entrances each morning as well as the camera system to ID people as they come through,” Aquilio said.
At the High School, there are also four safety officers during the day and one at night. The nighttime officer remains in the building until 9 p.m., when all school activities are completed.
After school hours, all visitors must sign in or provide their student ID. After 5 p.m., entry access is limited to the front entrance only. Generally, the same guards are assigned for shifts, so students become comfortable talking to the guard.
“We want the kids to know who they are, so that when they come in, they’re comfortable and can feel free to talk to the school safety officer,” said Gajdos, who has worked in security at P-T for the last 14 years.
Along with having school safety officers, each of the eight P-T schools also has an armed school safety guard, a specific type of safety officer, during school hours.
Similar to at athletic events, school resource officers will be present and manage the weapon detectors during regular school hours if implemented.
“When we make our decisions, we want to make decisions with students’ best interest in mind, keeping them safe and assuring parents and the community that we’re going to do everything in our power to keep our schools safe,” Aquilio said.
By Annabelle Aquino, Editor In Chief