VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – Students and parents noticed several changes showing up to school this year in Volusia County. There are several new safety measures in effect across the state of Florida.
At elementary schools, new pedestrian signs, speedbumps, and more traffic control officers were around many campuses. All of the county’s school gates and doors were harder to get through, too.
“All of our gates have to be shut and locked and our doors have to be shut and locked – both building ingress and egress doors as well as all the doors to all of the classrooms,” said Captain Todd Smith, the head of the district’s safety team.
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Also, starting this year, moving metal detectors will be brought to middle and high school campuses.
“We have the open gate metal detectors, they’re basically like two poles,” said Smith. “The students just come out of the classroom, walk through them, and if they have anything metal that alerts, they take it out, set it to the side and walk back through.”
A computer will choose a school and classroom randomly to be searched. If the student continues to not pass the metal detector, they will be searched.
“We will be rolling that out obviously at the beginning of the school year, not the first day, but once all the principals and teachers have their feet under them,” Smith said.
With 50 weapons confiscated on Volusia campuses all of last school year, Smith said the random searches, locked doors, and school resource deputies will work hand in hand to deter people from bringing any weapon or violence to campuses.
News 6 was at Sugar Mill Elementary School Monday morning where parents had the chance to see some of these safety changes and a few of them had some concerns about not being able to walk their child up to the front of the school.
“We want everything to be as convenient as possible, but sometimes safety is inconvenient and as we’re working through this process, we just ask for everyone’s patience while we’re getting it set up for the most convenient way to implement it,” Smith said..