Installing metal detectors at JCPS could cost $5 million, school board considering proposal

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kentucky's largest school district is closer to making a decision on installing metal detectors at its schools, and it's not the first time JCPS has considered the matter.

The idea of bringing metal detectors into JCPS schools was first discussed in 2016, but now with a push from some school board members, the conversation is continuing.

Whether or not metal detectors should be installed in JCPS schools was debated during Tuesday's board meeting, where a motion was made for Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio to put together a proposal to have them at schools.

With at least 20 guns found inside JCPS schools this year, the motion passed 6 to 1, with board member Dr. Chris Kolb voting no.

Kolb said metal detectors could lead to the criminalization of students. "We don't need to criminalize kids. We want to keep guns from being in our school buildings."

The conversation about school safety became somewhat tense during Tuesday's packed meeting, with our cameras capturing a heated conversation between Vice Chair Corrie Shull and Councilman Anthony Piagentini.

Shull also criticized the Metro Council and state legislators for failing to get guns off the streets. "Keep streets safe pass policy and get guns off the streets, get guns off the streets and then you come back and talk to us."

Shull later proposed the motion to install metal detectors inside JCPS middle and high schools after "we develop a school security task force that will study issues pertinent to the installation of metal detectors. Gun safety for JCPS goes far beyond this school year."

In 2016, two years after a school shooting at Fern Creek High School Attorney Robert Bornstein was part of a group hoping to persuade former superintendent Donna Hargens to install metal detectors.

"My position has not wavered at all since 2016," Bornstein said. "I would do it all over again. It's long overdue. My wife works for JCPS schools, and I have one currently in a JCPS high school, so I am concerned every day when they go to school or work."

In casting his vote against the proposal, Kolb said "racial bias will happen, with the implantation criminalization of Black children will happen, because it has happened everywhere they have been installed."

Meanwhile, Pollio says cost to bring in metal detectors is not an issue, and estimated that it would cost approximately $5 million to install five to ten metal detectors at each JCPS school. He said the biggest obstacle will be hiring additional staff members.

"In order to successfully have searches of backpacks, if a weapons detector goes off, we will have to have police officers available," he said. "Right now, those are not available to us as we try to hire."

Currently three JCPS schools are using metal detectors — Minor Daniels Academy, Breckinridge Metropolitan High School, and Waller-Williams Environmental.

The motion to install metal detectors requires additional discussion by April 25.