PHOENIX — The Phoenix Union High School District will soon be piloting new equipment intended to detect firearms and weapons brought onto campuses.
The district's Governing Board voted last week to spend up to $150,000 on renting equipment from OPENGATE Weapon Detection System to see how well it can screen students at two high schools.
Bostrom and Maryvale high schools will have the equipment set up at various access points where students and staff must pass through to get onto campus. The detectors entail two poles that are erected about three feet apart from each other, district records show.
If a detector goes off, then the individual will "be escorted to the side of the entrance with safety staff for a quick bag check and re-pass through the system when ready."
While the detectors are in use, the district will be collecting data at the schools on attendance rates, tardy rates, student arrests, and social media threats. School officials emphasized that the equipment won't collect personal identifiable information.
The program is getting approved at a time when Phoenix Union has been grappling with a series of gun-related incidents that have affected its community.
The following incidents have all taken place over the last year:
- Gunshots heard by football players practicing at Alhambra High School on Oct. 2
- A student was caught with a gun at North High School on Sept. 21
- A student was arrested in September for bringing a gun to Linda Abril Educational Academy.
- A student was detained at Maryvale High School for bringing a gun on campus on Sept. 7
- A gun and BB gun were found during separate incidents on Aug. 10 at Cesar Chavez High School
- A student was arrested in May for bringing an AR-15 rifle and ammunition to Bostrom High School
- A 17-year-old Cesar Chavez High School student was gunned down in May outside a house near 91st Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road.
- A district teacher was fatally shot last November while walking his dog near 12th Street and Maryland Avenue.
The pilot program will run for up to 12 weeks and starts during the second quarter of the school year.
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