LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The Jefferson County Public Schools Board of Education voted Tuesday night to further a discussion about metal detectors in schools at a later meeting.
The meeting agenda included conversations about gun safety and how the district can promote securing firearms at home. JCPS has seen at least 20 guns show up in its schools since the start of the 2022-23 school year, according to data obtained by WDRB News.
Tuesday, JCPS Board Vice Chair Corrie Shull supported a resolution to make firearms safety a part of the JCPS Student Handbook, saying it's a community-wide issue. But he then took the discussion to metal detectors and offered a motion asking for Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio to put together a proposal.
Shull said in the meeting he did not want metal detectors to lead to the criminalization of students.
“We don't need to criminalize kids,” Shull said. “We want to keep guns from being in our school buildings."
After discussion, the motion passed 6 to 1 with board member Dr. Chris Kolb voting against.
"There's no evidence that metal detectors are effective at keeping guns out of schools," Kolb said. "They're fairly easy to circumvent. And we know from instances where they have been installed that there's just nobody around."
Kolb also said metal detectors would target certain students.
"The fact that racial bias will happen, criminalization of Black children will happen in implementation because it's happened everywhere that they've been installed," he said.
The motion does not mean metal detectors will be installed at schools. But it’s merely the start of a study and discussion. However there are three JCPS schools that currently have metal detectors — Minor Daniels Academy, Breckinridge Metropolitan High School, and Waller-Williams Environmental.
Board members Linda Duncan, James Craig, and Sarah McIntosh spoke up in the meeting, supporting a closer look at metal detectors. Pollio said building visits are already underway to study metal detectors in schools.
Pollio said in the meeting the cost of implementation in the district is not an issue. He projects it would cost around $5 million to install five to ten metal detectors at each school. Pollio did have concerns about staffing and said metal detectors would require eight to ten trained personnel for several hours. He also noted that despite the board voting in 2019 to keep police officers out of school buildings that police help would be necessary to have successful searches.
"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."
The superintendent openly asked if Metro Council and state lawmakers were having discussions about how to keep guns out of schools.
"What we need are handguns taken away, access, for kids," Pollio said.
The motion requires additional discussion about metal detectors to take place by April 25.
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