Salt Lake City high schoolers will now see weapons detectors in their buildings

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When Salt Lake City high schoolers return from fall break, many will be greeted by machines with glowing little green lights atop each, like one might see entering a store.

But instead of detecting shoplifters, the devices will be scanning for objects resembling weapons or weapon parts.

The new weapons detectors will stand at the entrances of East, West and Highland high schools starting Tuesday, with Horizonte Instruction and Training Center receiving them later this fall. Their reveal is considered a “soft launch” for now — set up but not yet operational — so security staff can explain what the process will be like and answer any student questions. The devices will be up and running beginning Oct. 23.

“This is just another tool in our school safety arsenal,” Yándary Chatwin, a spokesperson for the Salt Lake City School District, said. “It’s not the end-all be-all, but it’s just another way that we can help prevent things from happening in our schools.”

In January, board members approved a $1.44 million expenditure to lease the devices for West, East and Highland highs from Stone Security LLC for four years, with the machines coming from Evolv Technology. The board approved an additional purchase order for $123,113 on Aug. 1 to install them at Horizonte.

The district had originally planned to get the weapons detectors up and running earlier in the school year, Chatwin said, but staffing the machines took longer than anticipated. In August, the district approved a $1.1 million purchase order for PalAmerican Security Inc. to staff the detectors, which gave the company the green light to begin recruiting security guards.

The machines will be located at each of the school’s main entrances, with security staff at each one. They will be staffed from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Chatwin said. Each school can choose to turn them on after hours for events such as basketball games.

How do the machines work?

Last Tuesday, the district held an open house for parents, students and community members to demonstrate how the weapons detectors will operate.

Some students — dressed in all black carrying violins, cellos, flutes, and other musical instruments — passed through Highland’s doors that evening, headed to a concert. Many hesitated and stared at the weapons detectors. Salt Lake City School District staff and other officials encouraged them to pass through.

The machines are designed to use artificial intelligence to detect potential weapons, said Neil Sandhoff, vice president and head of education for Evolv.

Multiple people can pass through the machines at the same time. If a student is flagged, they will be brought aside for a security check.

“The trusted adults in the building will take a closer look in their bag ... to make sure they aren’t bringing something to school that clearly doesn’t belong in a school,” Sandhoff said.

Some objects like laptops however, “don’t play well with the system,” Sandhoff said, adding that students will be able to pass their laptop around the weapons detectors.

If a student is found to have a weapon on them, the school will follow standard district policy, Chatwin said.

Currently, a student who is found with a weapon could face a suspension or expulsion along with being referred to the district for a “safe school hearing,” according to that policy.

Xavian Diaz, a Highland High School senior, was initially uncomfortable with the idea of weapons detectors at school. But after attending the open house, his feelings changed.

“Seeing how high-tech it is, it seems like a pretty trustworthy thing they’re doing,” he said.

How effective are Evolv’s detectors?

Evolv weapons detectors have been used and demonstrated in schools across the country. But questions surrounding how effective they are in accurately finding different kinds of weapons have emerged.

An Atlanta TV news station reported in June that Evolv machines “failed to detect four out of every 10 knives during a 2021 field test at an Ohio sports venue.” An upstate New York school district decided to phase out its use of Evolv machines last year after the machines failed to detect a knife that led to a stabbing between two students.

No security system or security technology is “100% perfect” — including Evolv’s — Sandhoff said in response to the reports. And Evolv’s systems are “not 100% perfect for finding all weapons,” but rather focused on finding “mass casualty weapons” like firearms.

“We are doing a really good job, we believe, better than any other competitor in finding mass casualty weapons, which is a predominant concern of the customers who buy Evolv,” he said.

‘It’s conflicting’

Ryan Christenson, whose daughter is a sophomore at Highland, said he recognizes that weapons detectors “seem like a necessary precaution at this point.”

“I think it’s something you kind of feel regretful about in some ways that it’s come to this, but it feels like the right thing to do,” he said.

For others, like Angelica Bolaños, seeing the weapons detectors “kind of tugs at your heart.”

“You don’t want to see this kind of system set up in your child’s school,” Bolaños said. “But you kind of feel like you need it. It’s conflicting for sure.”

Her son is a part of Highland’s band, she noted, and brings his saxophone to school “at least three times a week.” She’s worried that there will be times he’ll be late for class if he sets the machines off, or if he has to wait to pass through.

“But I’d rather that than him not being safe,” she said.

Xavian’s friend Spencer Baese said he worries about what might accidentally set off the detectors, such as his camera equipment. He’s also concerned about any biases the third-party guards who staff the machines may have, and may act on.

“I know the faculty have to follow the rules like the school district’s, but I don’t know how the employees of the machines will be,” Spencer said.

The district will be providing board of education members monthly demographic updates — such as the number of students stopped by the detectors and what race and gender they were.

Those monthly updates were requested by board members including Mohamed Baayd, who worried at an August meeting that students “are already under so much stress,” and that weapons detectors could make it worse, especially for marginalized students.

“I’m thinking about the minority kids who came from the refugee world, from places of war,” Baayd said. And if they walk through a detector and it goes off, “it’s a nightmare.”

Sandhoff acknowledged bias concerns. But he hopes that Evolv’s machines will “eliminate that bias.”

“We want to make sure that we provide equity across our schools,” he said. “The real benefit is that technology does the work; the human element to introduce bias is now relieved in a sense.”

But for those like Bolaños, she just wants to see the weapons detectors “in action.”

“You are working with teenagers who are naturally kind of insecure and defensive,” she said, adding that there “might be unnecessary trouble that might result from it.”