DELTONA, Fla. – Volusia County middle school students are about to see a major change when they return to campus.
The school district is expanding its weapons detection system program — already in place at high schools — to middle schools across the county.
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The rollout will not happen all at once. District officials plan to spend the first week walking students through how the systems work before a phased rollout begins. Galaxy Middle School is set to be the first campus to get the detectors, starting Aug. 31.
Christy Sturrup, the district’s director of Safety and Security, says the results at the high school level made a clear case for expansion.
“We have arrested kids of that age for making threats against the schools or harming other students,” Sturrup said.
The numbers back up that concern. Last school year, 13 weapons were caught on Volusia campuses — seven of them at high schools. At the middle school level, 15 students were arrested for making threats, and one was arrested for bringing a weapon to campus.
Sturrup says the detectors did more than catch weapons. They changed student behavior.
“Students were discarding items in trashcans such as vapes and anything they knew could potentially get caught by the metal detector because they did not want to get in trouble by student services,” Sturrup said.
She also addressed what students can expect during the screening process.
“You’ll get dropped off no different than you would any other day. You’ll get in line. Have your ID ready. Staff will in, you know, just inform you to make sure you are standing in line. Anything that you have your backpack on that you make sure you pull it up so it is properly on,” Sturrup said.
James Barringer, director of Student Services, says the phased approach is intentional.
“What we’re doing this year is a slow rollout and phasing them out like we did throughout the high schools to give an opportunity for the schools to get acclimated to having a metal detector on campus,” Barringer said.
The district is still finalizing the full rollout schedule for the remaining middle school campuses.