Metal detectors - what's the latest on their effectiveness and ease of use?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we should all write the Board and Superintendent about this. It's a huge waste of money and time. Not to mention the people staffing it have so much other work that I'm sure they could be doing.

The issue is that FCPS is implementing this so terribly. They need security guards, consistency, make everyone go thru weapons detectors any time you enter the building.

+1. The kids go outside for recess and P.E. And they return to the building with no checks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s so bad that now our insanely early bus time is 5 minutes earlier.

This is the worst part of it all. Why not just shave 10 mins off of start time, and shave a few minutes off of study hall or whatever they call it… oh that’s right then due to all the random religious holidays they wouldn’t get the requisite hours or some other measure of how much time they have to be in school each year.

Car pool line will be even longer I suspect which makes for more lost instructional hours… but hey at least they can shift the blame for lost instructional hours from the school to the kids and their parents. Detention like tic tacs.

FCPS has jumped the shark.

[Anonymous]

Another ill conceived and very poorly implemented non-educational activity that diverted a significant amount of money away from what should be FCPS’s primary mission educating students.

FCPS has become analogous to Rome. A school board that pontificates (Roman Senate), that acquires more territory (KAA) without a plan on how to effectively use/manage it, while Reid (the Emperor) fiddles in her ivory tower thinking up ways to frustrate the masses (boundary review).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we should all write the Board and Superintendent about this. It's a huge waste of money and time. Not to mention the people staffing it have so much other work that I'm sure they could be doing.

The issue is that FCPS is implementing this so terribly. They need security guards, consistency, make everyone go thru weapons detectors any time you enter the building.

+1. The kids go outside for recess and P.E. And they return to the building with no checks.

It's odd for sites where high volumes of students go outside for non PE classes or never enter the building initially - trailers and modulars. Some urban, suburban school sites have perimeter fences and gates. No strolling through the site. https://www.vcstar.com/picture-gallery/news/education/schoolwatch/2018/03/16/heres-one-way-ventura-county-schools-are-staying-safe/32814039/
https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/insights/how-security-fences-make-schools-safer-from-the-curb-to-the-classroom/173745/

FCPS did go maximum security on outdoors back in 2002 - football games at Fort Belvoir, trailer classes into the bricks and mortar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we should all write the Board and Superintendent about this. It's a huge waste of money and time. Not to mention the people staffing it have so much other work that I'm sure they could be doing.

Find some baby-faced adults to act as students and go through the line with cameras. Play the videos at a board meeting. Show the staff yelling at the kids and the nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work at a middle school. It takes tons of staff to get the kids through but they're getting to class on time now. They start their day being yelled at and treated like criminals, welcome to school. I want to see data on how many weapons or dangerous items FCPS has found with this nonsense. And yes, there are a million cases of people coming in and out of other doors before, during, and after school without screening so WTH.

Another fine day in FCPS. So over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we should all write the Board and Superintendent about this. It's a huge waste of money and time. Not to mention the people staffing it have so much other work that I'm sure they could be doing.

The issue is that FCPS is implementing this so terribly. They need security guards, consistency, make everyone go thru weapons detectors any time you enter the building.

Everything FCPS touches turns to garbage.

[Anonymous]

At least the metal detector staff at DC’s Fcps school hand over music instruments to students. I heard in DC public school the converter belt drop your music instrument on the ground on the other side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s so bad that now our insanely early bus time is 5 minutes earlier.

This is so dumb. Mornings for families with middle schoolers are already painful as they are. Are they going to move up the pick up time again if the extra 5 minutes is not enough to get everyone to class on time?

[Anonymous]

They took people away from traffic control for this. It's chaos and dangerous at the Kiss and Ride for this false sense of safety as they enter the building?

[Anonymous]

Huge crowd outside of our middle school today for the metal detectors which started today. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

If high school could figure it out, middle school will too. Everyone needs to just relax for a second and let this play out. My own kid in high school had about two days of delays/being late to 1st period and then it was completely fine after that.

Middle school is only just starting to roll it out and then it will be totally fine. Is it stupid and a waste of time? Absolutely. This isn't going to stop anyone who wants to bring a weapon in from bringing a weapon in. But is it going to be some horrific organizational nightmare for the rest of their time in middle school? No. They'll figure it out, get through the lines quickly, and get to class with no issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If high school could figure it out, middle school will too. Everyone needs to just relax for a second and let this play out. My own kid in high school had about two days of delays/being late to 1st period and then it was completely fine after that.

Middle school is only just starting to roll it out and then it will be totally fine. Is it stupid and a waste of time? Absolutely. This isn't going to stop anyone who wants to bring a weapon in from bringing a weapon in. But is it going to be some horrific organizational nightmare for the rest of their time in middle school? No. They'll figure it out, get through the lines quickly, and get to class with no issue.

So we shouldn't complain because even though it's a waste of time/money/effort/stress that achieves nothing, it's fine since kids won't be late to class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If high school could figure it out, middle school will too. Everyone needs to just relax for a second and let this play out. My own kid in high school had about two days of delays/being late to 1st period and then it was completely fine after that.

Middle school is only just starting to roll it out and then it will be totally fine. Is it stupid and a waste of time? Absolutely. This isn't going to stop anyone who wants to bring a weapon in from bringing a weapon in. But is it going to be some horrific organizational nightmare for the rest of their time in middle school? No. They'll figure it out, get through the lines quickly, and get to class with no issue.

If a process is ineffective and consumes resources, then it should be ended. Getting used to inefficiency is how we got to a bloated school system that spends money like a drunken sailor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If high school could figure it out, middle school will too. Everyone needs to just relax for a second and let this play out. My own kid in high school had about two days of delays/being late to 1st period and then it was completely fine after that.

Middle school is only just starting to roll it out and then it will be totally fine. Is it stupid and a waste of time? Absolutely. This isn't going to stop anyone who wants to bring a weapon in from bringing a weapon in. But is it going to be some horrific organizational nightmare for the rest of their time in middle school? No. They'll figure it out, get through the lines quickly, and get to class with no issue.

If a process is ineffective and consumes resources, then it should be ended. Getting used to inefficiency is how we got to a bloated school system that spends money like a drunken sailor.

+100 they paused finger printing but they won’t pause metal detectors?