ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Starting Monday, Orange County Public Schools will try out a new way to keep kids safe.
Students at Wekiva High School will walk through new security tech, called OPENGATE, aimed at detecting weapons. The district said it’s one of seven schools that was randomly chosen for the pilot program.
“It’s just another way that we are trying to make sure that schools are safe for everybody,” Superintendent Maria Vazquez said. “We’re hoping it’s going to provide us some data to make decisions about a tool that our board has been discussing for years.”
It’s similar to what you’ve seen at theme parks, for example.
The district said it’ll also pick up other contraband items not allowed on school property. They said if a prohibited item is detected, they’ll do a secondary screening, then there could be disciplinary action.
Even though the system starts at Wekiva High on Monday, the other schools chosen for the program are Boone, Jones, Evans, Horizon, Timber Creek and Lake Nona high schools.
News 6 asked the OCPS superintendent how those schools were chosen and she said they were chosen at random from a computer-generated system.
“The only criteria is we wanted to have one in every board member’s district,” Vazquez said.
According to Orange County deputies, nine guns were removed from Orange County schools last year.
The pilot program will cost the district $475,000 with a portion being paid for by a grant.
When it comes to a timetable, the district said the other six schools will get this system in phases between January and March.
“We’re starting maybe with the bus area and then maybe we’ll go to the car drop off area and then we’ll look at full implementation at the entire school,” Vazquez said.
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