HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Up until this time, weapon detection systems were primarily deployed to High Schools. However, in this case, Sonnie Hereford is the first Huntsville City Elementary School distributed the weapon detection system. Huntsville City Schools Director of Operations Dr. Jeffrey Wilson says, "these systems are mobile. They are transportable, and they are relatively lightweight. What we want to do is make sure that everybody is comfortable not only seeing the system but also using it, going through it, understanding how it works and how they interact with it."
Dr. Wilson wants parents and families to understand that they are like a lot of other public entities."You go to ball games, you see these, you go to the VBC, you see similar systems, you go to amusement parks, you see them," he added.
Ultimately this is just another layer of school safety and security, and the good news is there's a unique feature about the Evol system. "In contrast to a traditional metal detector where you're going to stop and you're going to empty all the metal out of your pockets. the evolve system is using an artificial intelligence," Dr. Wilson explained.
So it's looking for things that look lethal. "So that's why you don't have to take your necklace off. you don't have to take your watch off your earrings or take your phone out of your pocket, because the the AI's not looking for those things," he continued.
Parents I spoke with say schools should have weapon detection systems due to all the recent school shootings. " So, I don't think it's nothing bad. I do think it you know; it can help prevent some type of situations. It should be in all schools... it's better to be safe than sorry today," said one parent.
Andrew Evans said his child feels safer with this equipment at school. "My own son has said, I'm glad they're putting it in because now I can feel safe at school. I think it is very good to be in school systems for the safety of not only the kids, but the school system itself, making it very safe environment for the teachers, for the children, keeps everybody honest and then we can go to school and just worry about learning and not all the other things that could come negative behind what's in a metal detector that it detects."