Henrico officials planning to test metal detectors in some county schools

Could metal detectors be coming to Henrico County’s public schools?

Henrico Superintendent Amy Cashwell told the county’s board of supervisors during a retreat Friday that the school system is planning a field test of walk-through and wand-style metal detectors at some schools in the coming months to determine whether implementation countywide could be a viable safety enhancement.

If school officials determine that such an approach is warranted, they don’t seem likely to face any funding hurdles: a majority of supervisors expressed to Cashwell in no uncertain terms that they would fully support the use of metal detectors in all county schools as a way to reduce the potential threat of gun violence.

“We are willing to support the equipment, if you need the money,” Board Chair and Tuckahoe District Supervisor Pat O’Bannon told Cashwell. “This is that important.”

Added Three Chopt District Supervisor Tommy Branin: “If you go this direction, which we’re hoping you do, it has to be countywide. . . [W]e’re saying to you: This is top priority.”

The issue feels particularly timely to many in the county now, in part because the school system has witnessed a handful of incidents this year in which students were caught with guns on school grounds. Within the past year or so, several Henrico County students also have been shot and killed in the community.

Cashwell, appreciative of the board’s enthusiastic support for more safety measures, said that following several incidents in high schools last week, she had ordered an increase in Henrico Police K-9 unit sweeps in public schools. She told supervisors that each school has layered security measures in place and that the school system is finishing its effort to ensure that every school has an updated security vestibule, so that school officials have control over who has access to the inside of each building.

Walk-through metal detectors vary in price but generally start at about $4,000 apiece, according to industry data and recent bulk purchases by other school systems in the nation. Metal detector wands typically cost between $100 and $200 apiece when purchased in bulk.

Cashwell did not provide a cost estimate for what the school system might require, were it to implement metal detectors, nor did she indicate how many walk-through or wand-style detectors per school might be necessary.

Henrico County has 74 public schools and centers that serve nearly 50,000 students and are staffed by nearly 7,500 employees, including 4,256 teachers. At $4,000 apiece, it would cost the school system $592,000 to purchase two walk-through detectors for each school.

But purchase and implementation costs are not the only expenses that would be associated with system-wide implementation of metal detectors. The school system also would have to allocate additional employee time, and most likely hire additional employees, to operate the equipment. Officials in some school divisions that have implemented similar units later concluded that it wasn’t feasible to scan every student every day, rendering the equipment less effective than originally anticipated.

Branin suggested that as school and county officials weigh ideas to retain teachers and other school employees, the need to provide those employees with safe places to work should be near the top of the list.

“We’ve been talking about retention of teachers and retention of employees – this is part of that,” he said. “Let us know, we will dig deep and look for more money if it means that. This is the most critical topic that I think we’ll cover.”

Safety has been a priority for the school system, Cashwell said. Earlier this year, school system officials installed new security cameras (totaling about $5.4 million) at a number of schools countywide. This summer, a committee evaluated ways in which the system could make schools more accessible to first-responders, suggesting enhancements that would total about $5.13 million, she said.

Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson encouraged Cashwell to move through the field tests of metal detectors expeditiously.

“I just don’t want to get a call someday that while we are studying this, something happened,” he said.

Nelson also admitted that he had felt a certain level of guilt in the past decade about whether his push in 2013 for the school system to address widespread student discipline inequities had caused the system to relax its discipline standards too much.

At the time, though Black students composed about 37% of all students in the system, they accounted for roughly 75% of all out-of-school suspensions.

“I’m worried sometimes that we are not as disciplined toward our kids as we should be in certain situations,” Nelson told Cashwell. “This is the first time in this past year, post-COVID, that I’ve really had parents tell me that they are scared to send their kids to school. Teachers are saying they are concerned, they’re worried that something is going to happen.

“Just know that for one who has always been focused on bias and inequity – I can still focus on those things, and I don’t want us to put metal detectors in some schools but not all the schools – but just know that most of us are 1000% behind you. We have to protect our kids, our students, our administrators.”