DANVILLE, Va. – The Danville Public School Board is continuing to adopt new safety measures as school is underway.
Thursday’s discussion revolved around the use of metal detectors. Currently, George Washington High School is the only school in its division that has metal detectors.
Last week, a student was caught with a gun in their backpack, 10 News reported, and at that time, the school was only doing random searches of students.
Now, every student is being searched before entering the building.
Jefferey McLaughlin, Director of Safety and Security for Danville Public Schools, said having metal detectors was the plan all along, but the incident sped up the process.
“When you have it in your mind, the process that this is something that you want and then something like this occurs, it just speeds up your process to make sure that everyone in our Danville Public Schools buildings are safe,” McLaughlin said.
So far, McLaughlin said there haven’t been any issues with students resisting the search.
“It just becomes a daily routine. I haven’t had any student come to me and say they’re concerned about it because most students and most parents want their children to be safe,” McLaughlin said.
Eventually, the district will have metal detectors in each of the high schools and middle schools.
They are currently in the process of procuring the screening technology.
Wayne Lyle, Chief Operations Officer for Danville Public Schools, said that having the detectors in all of their schools will help ease parents’ worries.
“I feel like it’s something that we can do that can help alleviate worries for not only students but for their parents as well,” Lyle said.
A student was credited with saving lives after speaking up about seeing a gun brought to school in Danville last week, 10 News reported.
“One of the things that I feel is important for the students and their parents to know is if you know something say something, if you see something say something,” Lyle said.