Schools Testing Weapon Detector

Santa Ana school officials are considering buying a digital-scanning security system that purports to detect weapons on a person and pinpoint their number and location.

School officials said the system, if purchased, would be deployed at sporting and other events that attract large crowds.

“It is very inconspicuous and effective,” said Al Mijares, superintendent of the 60,000-student Santa Ana Unified School District.

At a demonstration Thursday for educators and campus police at Santa Ana High School, the system was put to the test, catching a razor blade that a company executive had placed in his mouth.

The device, which consists of a portal attached to a monitor, scans those walking through and displays metal objects as bright dots on the screen.

Paul Reep, CEO of Idaho manufacturer Milestone Technology, said the system pinpoints the location of such objects on a person’s body via the monitor and sounds an alert if any of them are possible weapons, from small knives to handguns.

System Already in Use at Idaho Courthouse

The system has been tested at schools in New York, and a number of schools in Colorado have ordered the machines, Reep said, but so far the device is in use only at a courthouse in Idaho.

The machine can distinguish innocuous items such as cell phones from possible weapons, Reep said. Also, an unusual location for a metal object, such as a razor blade in someone’s mouth, would attract the attention of anyone monitoring the screen.

Mijares said the district is considering buying two of the portable machines at about $40,000 each.

Security guards randomly pat down people at large school events, Mijares said, but that can be time-consuming and heavy-handed.

The potential purchase “is making use of technology and doing everything we know to make sure our campuses are safe without creating a cloud of excessive authority,” Mijares said. “What we don’t want to do is make our schools look like jails.”

The string of school shootings around the nation in recent years has put many educators on edge when it comes to weapons on campus, Mijares said.

But, he said, “I adamantly disagree with the notion that public schools are unsafe, that they are riddled with guns and bullets. We reflect society, and in that regard we have some issues, but the reality is public schools are some of the safest places for children.”

The district will test the machine at school campuses and events over the next several weeks, Mijares said, before making a decision.

School officials say weapons on campus are a relatively rare occurrence.

The number of students caught with weapons statewide decreased from 1.22 per 1,000 in 1996 to 1.14 in 2000, according to the latest California Safe Schools Assessment.

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, campus police and staff use hand-held metal detectors and students are randomly searched for weapons at all middle and high schools, said Wesley Mitchell, district police chief.

The number of students caught with weapons last year in the 710,000-student district was about 510, or 0.72 per 1,000.

In Santa Ana, school police confiscated weapons from about 50 students last year, a rate of 0.83 per 1,000.

“We are looking at the [weapon detection] device because we want to be proactive,” said Jim Miyashiro, district police chief.