Will school weapon detections cause class time delay?

[Anonymous]

My kid sent me a picture of the line at Woodson yesterday morning. It was wrapped around the building and my freshman and junior stood in it for 45 minutes. If you're a school shooter, wouldn't you just come to the school, and not go through the line, but rather just stand outside and thank Dr. Reid for having assembled all the kids in one place every morning to make things simpler for you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can understand all this angst if it is still an issue in a week or two. 29 pages of complaints about something brand new that is at least TRYING to protect our kids and teachers is insanity.

Well, I am not optimistic on this seeing the posts by the parents from the high schools FCPS conducted the weapon detector pilot program.

+1 this isn't a new program. This is a program that FAILED it's pilot and was then rolled out.

Sounds like the Yondr pouches. I would much prefer we use this money to pay the teachers what they deserve and allow them to teach, rather than repurposing underpaid teachers to work as prison guards to put on a law enforcement performance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Same issues with Marshall. Two doors can be used for entry - the front (buses) and the back (kiss and ride and student drivers). The walkers can no longer use the side entrance.

My kids said they had to take out their Chromebooks, binders and metal water bottle, hand it all to a guy on the side, walk through the detectors, and then pack it back up.

What about the metal thermo lunch jar in the lunch box?

I presume everything metal would need to come out. My kids plan on buying lunch to avoid needing to also deconstruct lunch boxes at the door.

Band instruments?? I’m thinking about flutes, brass instruments, etc.?

My kid's friend took a trombone through the weapons detector yesterday morning and it didn't set off the machine. I don't buy that the machine can tell the difference between a trombone and a machine gun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yesterday my kid also was told to hold her laptop above her head. not sure which school as she does go to an academy class.

She also set off the detector at the academy school on day 2. They told her to go to another kind of separate scanner and she just went to class. Nobody stopped her. When she went back to base school she didn't set it off with the same stuff, so who knows.

NP with younger kids but following—why do they have to hold laptops above their heads? Won’t the metal detector detect any metal on the body—what makes holding items above the head special?

[Anonymous]

Maybe they will all just shut off the detectors and they can just stay as decoration.

I do have to wonder if this is what will happen in the long run. By the end of the school year, they will be pushed to the side. Then, they will sit on a blacktop somewhere after that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid sent me a picture of the line at Woodson yesterday morning. It was wrapped around the building and my freshman and junior stood in it for 45 minutes. If you're a school shooter, wouldn't you just come to the school, and not go through the line, but rather just stand outside and thank Dr. Reid for having assembled all the kids in one place every morning to make things simpler for you?

45 minutes is enough to give an Algebra, or English or history lecture or finish a unit test study guide. So fruitful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have first period off for plan/ipr you can be assigned the duty. No training needed.

I’d be sending gift baskets weekly to whoever in charge of making schedules and asking to never have a first period free then!

If you don't have this duty then it's bathroom duty, cafeteria duty, etc. later in the day. There are no good options and the extra duties this year are really taking a toll on staff morale.

Unfortunately it’s required for student safety. There are vapes and weapons being brought to school. The detectors and supervision in the halls/bathroom areas help address vaping, fighting, bullying, assaults, and more. FCPS could also ask for parent volunteers. Elementary teachers have always had duties as part of their day. Most parents are thankful for the extra safety precautions and staff supervision. I wish teachers had more time, but FCPS could choose to hire more security guards or allow parebt volunteers. Money could be taken from other places in the budget to fund this. This is an FCPS problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yesterday my kid also was told to hold her laptop above her head. not sure which school as she does go to an academy class.

She also set off the detector at the academy school on day 2. They told her to go to another kind of separate scanner and she just went to class. Nobody stopped her. When she went back to base school she didn't set it off with the same stuff, so who knows.

NP with younger kids but following—why do they have to hold laptops above their heads? Won’t the metal detector detect any metal on the body—what makes holding items above the head special?

Laptop, umbrella, 3-ring binder.......can make the "weapon detector" sound. So they told student to hold these stuff high to avoid being scanned by the detector. If your student is too short, like my DD's friend, who can't raise the laptop and other stuff high enough to go out of the "weapon detector" scanning range, the person at the detector will send the student to a table aside to go through manual backpack search. They also check students lunch box at the manual search table. Not sure what they are looking for, medal forks maybe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand, did they fire the people who did those jobs last year (obviously, the metal detector jobs are new, and absurd).

Exactly. These duties should’ve always been in place for student safety. It’s concerning that these duties (hall/bathroom supervision) are just now being implemented. This is why the MS/HS are rampant with fights, vaping, bullying, assaults, and more. Thankfully they are starting to address it so students can be safer at school.

[Anonymous]

So if there is a fire drill during the day - does that mean everyone has to go back through security a second time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So if there is a fire drill during the day - does that mean everyone has to go back through security a second time?

I bet FCPS doesn't even think about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have first period off for plan/ipr you can be assigned the duty. No training needed.

I’d be sending gift baskets weekly to whoever in charge of making schedules and asking to never have a first period free then!

If you don't have this duty then it's bathroom duty, cafeteria duty, etc. later in the day. There are no good options and the extra duties this year are really taking a toll on staff morale.

It seems like teachers are tasked with everything but the time to plan and teach....sad for them and students.

I wonder how first period teachers feel about multiple students being late every day.

So much this...and the kids how do they feel in school with this chaos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Maybe they will all just shut off the detectors and they can just stay as decoration.

I do have to wonder if this is what will happen in the long run. By the end of the school year, they will be pushed to the side. Then, they will sit on a blacktop somewhere after that.

They have a huge warehouse for all the materials that only last a year and FCPS gets rid of. Millions and Millions of dollars wasted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So if there is a fire drill during the day - does that mean everyone has to go back through security a second time?

excellent question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have first period off for plan/ipr you can be assigned the duty. No training needed.

I’d be sending gift baskets weekly to whoever in charge of making schedules and asking to never have a first period free then!

If you don't have this duty then it's bathroom duty, cafeteria duty, etc. later in the day. There are no good options and the extra duties this year are really taking a toll on staff morale.

It seems like teachers are tasked with everything but the time to plan and teach....sad for them and students.

I wonder how first period teachers feel about multiple students being late every day.

So much this...and the kids how do they feel in school with this chaos.

How would you feel starting your work day exhausted by standing in an airport security line (only outside, in the rain) for an hour. Every morning.