Duval County School Board approves metal detectors to be used in all high schools

The Duval County School Board has approved the type of metal detectors that will be used in all public high schools next school year. But to be clear, students won't have to walk though them every day.

Each high school will have two of the portable detectors that can be easily moved. They will only be used when there is a bomb threat or a confirmed threat to the school.

“It will only be used when our police department, the school’s police department, has determined that there’s a credible threat they can’t clear up,” says Paula Wright, chairwoman of the School Board.

The Duval County School District says they are ordering 322 new handheld metal detectors, 44 portable walk-through units as well as four more walk-through units for the two alternative schools. Included in the 44 metal detectors are two that will be ready to deploy wherever they are needed in the city.

Wright says if there is something happening at a middle school, for instance, they will be able to move the metal detectors wherever they are needed.

The total cost for everything is about $173,000, according to the School District. That includes batteries, wheels and chargers.

Most of the funding will come from the 2018 Educational Facilities Security Grant request to the state, but some district funding will also be used, according to the School District.

Funding for the grant comes from money associated with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Safety Act.

The plan is to start putting the metal detectors in high schools sometime next year.