FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — This week, four more Palm Beach County high schools are training with metal detectors, with an official rollout expected next week.
One of them is William T. Dwyer High School in Palm Beach Gardens, where two students were found with guns on campus in the past month.
WPTV education reporter Stephanie Susskind has learned that school leaders from Broward County are now planning to implement very similar technology to try to make schools safer.
WPTV Chopper 5 flew over Dwyer High School on Tuesday as it becomes one of the next to roll out metal detectors.
SPECIAL COVERAGE: Education
While Dwyer is part of the district's planned schedule, the equipment comes just days after a student was found with a gun on campus for the second time in a month.
"I absolutely welcome them," Dwyer parent Maria Shell said. "I don’t have any concerns of invasion of privacy or anything like that."
Shell is ready for the extra layer of security.
"I think this addresses the immediate concern of how can we reduce the risk of weapons being brought onto campus? And metal detectors are a great way to do that. But there’s still more that needs to be done," Shell said.
Other Palm Beach County schools training on the metal detectors this week include Boca Raton Community High School, Glades Central Community High School, and Dr. Joaquin Garcia High School, the district's newest high school campus.
Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Peter Licata, a former Palm Beach County school leader, told Susskind they are taking note.
"It's not the end all, be all. But if it's catching one or two along the way, it's well worth it," Licata said.
Right now, Broward County schools use metal detection wands.
Licata said his staff has visited Palm Beach County campuses using metal detectors and plans to launch a similar program soon.
"They've been incredibly cooperative up there. And it's going to be probably roughly the same type of apparatus," Licata said. "There's a learning curve, but hopefully ours is a lot shorter because they did the hard work for us to start."
The four new schools on the list in Palm Beach County officially begin using the metal detectors on Tuesday of next week.
Once they are up and running, the devices will be on half of Palm Beach County high school campuses as the district works their way through all 24 campuses.
