#parent | #kids | #schoolsafety | Midland Public Schools does school safety in layers

Midland Public Schools added the Evolv Technology weapons detection system to all four secondary schools: Jefferson Middle School, Northeast Middle School, H. H. Dow High School and Midland High School.

The school board voted 5-0, with two members absent, in approval of the $1.132 million system. 
According to Superintendent Michael Sharrow, the school district used grant funds from Section 97(1) of the School Aid Budget and General Funds for the purchase of 10 “Evolv Express” weapons detection gates. The company associated with the purchase is the Alliance Technology Group of Hanover, Maryland. 
“Soft launch” took adjustments, time
The technology arrived this fall, with Oct. 27 marking the beginning of the “soft launch phase.” The soft launch ends the week of Nov. 28. 
Midland High School Principal Tiela Schurman said the first day with the new technology was “clunky.” Administrators taught students how to address the new entry process. She said the software mistakenly flagged essential school supplies.
A table was added for students to remove items from their backpacks, similar to an airport security check but without the X-ray scanners. 
“It was inconvenient,” Schurman said. “Once we identified what it was, within one day, we were able to train kids. It has gone, from my vantage point, relatively seamless.”
One of Schurman’s concerns was human resources, such as how many people it takes to man the technology, which includes digital screens connected to gates.
“It does pull all of our administrators off of everything else,” she said. “(But) it has not been as big of an inconvenience as everybody initially thought. We’re out there in the hallways welcoming kids anyway. Now, we’re just watching the screens (at the same time).”

In October, Associate Superintendent Jeff Jaster explained overall safety efforts to the school community. He said the secure entrances created in the buildings are not meant to be the only layer in the school security process. 

“This is not foolproof,” he said. “It’s just one of the things that we have done to try to improve safety.”
The intensity of the weapons detection software can be adjusted as needed. For example, Jaster said, a certain report could elevate a sensitivity level to a higher setting. He said some days could be screened on “high,” other days on “low.”
“We’re working on, with our procedures, basically a rotation for what that is going to look like,” Jaster said. “With the understanding that if something gets reported, that’s a concern. We can always raise it back to a higher sensitivity for screening.”
The Evolv technology is currently more popular in non-school settings, such as sporting stadiums and casinos. According to Sharrow, the same detection technology was in place at the entrance of a recent concert at Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in Mount Pleasant. 
The company is partnered with venues and schools to provide “next-level security screening that’s highly accurate and unobtrusive,” according to Evolv Technology.
For more information, visit www.evolvtechnology.com/industries/schools.