Ohio County Schools Still Mulling Purchase of Metal Detectors
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WHEELING - There remains a possibility Ohio County Schools could purchase metal detectors in the near future, and the price tag could be as much as $200,000, according to Assistant Superintendent Rick Jones.
Questions remain as to what kind of monitors to purchase, he explained. Choices include full-scale monitors placed at school doors, portable monitors that can be moved to different locations such as football games, or just more handheld monitors like the ones the schools presently use.
The handheld monitors came out for use on the first day of school this year at Wheeling Park High School after some bullet shells were found on a school bus and a lockdown was called. It turned out the bullets had fallen out of the backpack of a student who was collecting them and received them from a friend, according to Assistant Superintendent Rick Jones.
Jones spoke on the topic of metal detectors during a safety meeting Friday morning at WPHS. Among those invited were school officials, parents, local mental health experts and law enforcement agents.
Jones indicated his opinion on having full-scale metal detectors "is mixed."
"If you did want to bring something in, you're not going to just walk through a metal detector," he explained. "There are 150 doors here at Wheeling Park. I know they primarily come in and out one (set), but there are a lot of things that could happen."
Many school shootings have happened after exterior doors were left open, allowing the shooter to enter, Jones continued.
On the other hand, it took three to four hours to hand wand each WPHS student on the first day of school as principals and school resource officers looked for a gun or additional bullets.
"If we had had metal detectors, we could have done that in 15 to 20 minutes," Jones said.
The full-size monitors also would require someone to operate and watch them.
Jones added he and Superintendent Kim Miller have a meeting with a company next week that sells portable metal detectors that can be brought out when needed and taken to a specific location such as a football game.
"We're going to decide if we're going to purchase them, or if we want to purchase the giant thing that probably is going to cost $200,000, or if we just want to buy more wands," he said.
He asked those present to take time to think about the options and later provide their thoughts to the school district.
Jones also noted school safety isn't just about preventing school shootings, but involves concerns about issues within school facilities.
It can involve investigating the mental health concerns of a student, finding out who has been making prank phone calls and threats, or stopping fights that often are orchestrated via cellphone, he said.
A ban on cellphones during instructional time was implemented at WPHS this year, with students placing their phones into an organizer "calculator" bags in the classroom when they arrive for class.
Among the results is that there has been a decrease in the number of fights at WPHS, according to Jones.
"There isn't that 'I'm going to kick your ... in 10 minutes' sort of thing," he explained. "You can't do it if you don't have your phone.
"This won't eliminate fights completely, but it's progress and it's better than it was before."
Assistant Principal Jack Doyle reported that so far this school year this school year there have been 75 instances of cellphone infractions and that the number of fights have decreased.
"We are fighting cellphones hard so we don't have to deal with other issues," he explained.
Doyle also added that on the day of the lockdown the search of students resulted in six trash bags of vaping equipment being confiscated.