Duval County Public Schools: We're open to metal detectors

In the days following the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, the thought of how to keep students and staff safe has been top of mind.

Interim Superintendent,. Patricia Willis, of Duval County Public Schools met, with other city leaders Thursday morning to talk about the best ways to keep students safe.

Willis said she's open to metal detectors.

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“We were looking at: How do we create the funding to make that happen?,” she said.

Some school districts across Florida tried similar tactics, including doing random screenings in which students were checked with a metal detector wand.

We asked parents if they would be open to the idea of metal detector in schools.

“The truth is, is that it’s going to take much more than metal detectors. I think maybe metal detectors are something to have but it's certainly not the answer and I don’t think we should be, like 'We got metal detectors. We should just relax,'” said parent Nadia Ramoutar.

Rex Williams who has a young sister in school, and said he thinks the detectors could be useful for finding weapons, but wonders what guidelines students would have to follow for searches.

“How would they search the students if these metal detectors went off? And, also, what would be deemed inappropriate? Because then we'll have parents say, 'My child got searched today,' and they feel it was inappropriate,” said Rex.

Parents said any additional safety measure to keep children safe is a positive, and they hope the dialog about safety continues, so children and staff don’t have to feel threatened at schools.

Willis said that President Trump's suggestion of having certain school employees carry guns is not a good idea.

“Teachers are trained to be teachers. That’s what we hold them accountable to. I think it’s a big ask to be an excellent teacher and an excellent law enforcement person,” said Willis. "I don't believe it should be teachers because of the complicated nature of what you're asking them to do. It's got to be someone trained to address that situation."

Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said he agrees with Willis.

One parent said she was an educator for 18 years and she would have felt very uncomfortable if asked to carry a weapon.

"It's not a nice idea to feel that we have to arm the teachers to be like jailers," said Ramoutar.

Sheriff Williams said there are already armed police at school and the Sheriff's office is looking into the possibility of expanding that resource.

Cox Media Group