‘It’s time to protect our children’: Parents support metal detector safety

Natalie Barr, Staff Writer

Henrico County Public Schools will implement metal detectors in a limited number of schools as a field test in mid-February. 

Amy Cashwell, HCPS superintendent, released a statement on Jan. 22, two days after an incident involving a middle school student with a gun in their backpack at Holman Middle School. It relayed Cashwell’s message to field test metal detectors as a way to decrease firearm-related incidents at HCPS schools.

The addition of metal detectors at select high schools and middle schools is only a small piece of the overall safety measures in place, according to Cashwell. HCPS launched a blue-ribbon safety panel last summer to take a deeper look at safety and security for the county’s schools.

The panel found an increase in weapons in schools and increased the number of random canine searches and advanced the idea of metal detectors.

“We are doing a limited installation as part of a field test, so that we can really learn how they work as a part of our layered safety and security plans,” Cashwell said.

Cashwell has been prioritizing school safety for a few years due to the increase in youth crime and violence seen in Henrico County and in other schools, she said. 

Forty school counselors, 22 school-based mental health professionals and an increased number of safety resources officers were added to HCPS schools last year. Cashwell, along with other community leaders, co-chairs a task force focused on student safety and well-being, she said.

“We are always evaluating our school safety plans. We have annual audits that are done on our campuses to look at all angles of safety and security,” Cashwell said.

The superintendent gained support from HCPS school board, board of supervisors, county manager and chief of police for the field test after she presented information and plans to the board of supervisors back in December, Cashwell said.

There is inventory in place for the field test to happen as walk through and wand metal detectors are currently used at sporting events, according to Cashwell.

The results from the field test should come out in spring and will be looked at to determine what steps should be considered for the next school year. The logistics, such as the time it takes for students to enter and exit the building and the labor required to operate the metal detectors, are still unclear and will be shown through the findings, according to Cashwell.

“We’re going to be leaning into the students, the staff and the families at our field test schools to get their perceptions of the implications of the field test, and where they saw strengths and challenges,” Cashwell said.

Cashwell knows this cannot be a problem and solution that schools solve on their own. She emphasized the need for parents and leaders to be active in their children’s lives and help them understand the consequences firearms and threats bring to school campuses, she said.

“I ask that families and caregivers know what’s in your child’s backpack when they leave for school, what’s in their pockets and be tuned into how they’re feeling,” Cashwell said. 

John Aughenbaugh, VCU political science associate professor, believes the United States has a gun problem. Under state law, all public schools prohibit guns on school property, but until parents are faced with tougher punishment, nothing can change, he said.

“I’m kind of thinking that unless parents are incentivized to be more vigilant about how they secure store firearms in their homes, we’re not going to get rid of this problem of kids bringing guns to school,” Aughenbaugh said.

Virginia and 29 other states have Child Access Prevention Laws, or CAP laws, in place. Parents who show proof of home safety measures preventing firearm access cannot be prosecuted under state law when their child is found with a gun on school property, according to Aughenbaugh

“In regards to what Henrico County’s doing, public schools in Virginia have pretty wide discretion on what they can do to make sure weapons don’t get onto their campuses.” Aughenbaugh said.

Aughenbaugh is a gun owner himself and a father of a 10-year-old daughter. He does not keep his gun at home where his daughter could potentially access it, he said. 

Preventative measures to keep firearms away from children would have positive impacts, but with a Republican-controlled House of Delegates and a Democrat-controlled state Senate, it would be difficult to get strict gun legislation passed, Aughenbaugh said. 

“So, unless we are willing to prosecute parents for the problems their children are creating, because they’re finding guns at home,” Aughenbaugh said. “I don’t know if we can get rid of this problem.”

Jessica Corbett, a parent of three children in the county, supports the superintendent’s decision to implement metal detectors as a field test. Metal detectors are used in airports, amusement parks, concerts and sporting events to keep everyone in attendance safe, why not put them in schools, she said.

“I’m pretty sad that it’s taken us to this point in our society that we have to have this discussion,” Corbett said. “We have to do something to keep our kids safe.”

Corbett does not think lawmakers are moving fast enough to create effective gun laws and there should be harsher measures on parents who are not securing guns in their houses and out of children’s hands; until such laws are in place, schools have to take the stance to put protective measures in place, she said. 

“It is time to make sure that the safety of our kids does not rely on other people’s parents or their students’ parents or other students or the people that we put into the legislation to help make these rules that are not working,” Corbett said.

All three of Corbett’s children partake in lock and hide training at their schools, and she talks with her older children about what to do if there is ever an active shooter incident at their school. 

When a student was found with a gun on Holman Middle School property on Jan. 20, it was still a scary moment for her children, but also as a parent, Corbett said while holding back tears.  

Corbett thinks the field test should not be only for HCPS — but for all other counties and localities in the state. 

“It’s time to protect all of our children and our teachers and the staff that go there every day and work hard, and you know, should feel safe within the confines of their building,” Corbett said. “If it [metal detectors] prevents one gun, I mean, one gun does so much damage, or one knife, then it’s worth it.”