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Houston ISD has begun implementing a new kind of security system at its schools, one that is recognizable to anybody who has attended a major athletic event, in response to a few high-profile events involving guns on school campuses.
HISD started using OpenGate, a weapons detection system that requires students to pass through two giant poles, at high schools around the district this semester. A wand or staff member waving it over people is absent, in contrast to a conventional handheld metal detector.
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According to Chief of Organizational Effectiveness Kari Feinberg and HISD Police Chief Shamara Garner, the systems provide an additional degree of security for students.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Uniform Crime Reporting System, HISD arrested 14 minors between August 2023 and May 2024 for breaking gun-related statutes, such as unlawfully possessing or using a pistol. This school year, HISD personnel also discovered guns at Bellaire and Lamar High Schools.
The new firearms security systems and safety procedures are being deployed and implemented by Garner, who took over HISD’s police department in August 2023, working alongside teams led by Fienberg, who joined the district 18 months ago.
Garner and Feinberg discussed the new project and what families should know about crime safety in the district with the Houston Landing.
The interview that follows has been slightly edited for length and clarity.
I know there have been a couple publicized incidents where
weapons have been found
on campus this year, prompting this change of adding the security systems. Are incidents related to weapons rising in HISD? Can you also explain
why HISD took this step
to add in weapon security systems?
Garner Weapons have been found on our campus, as you mentioned. It’s not rising, in my opinion. In fact, I believe that the detection of weapons speaks well of our existing safety systems, especially the relationships that students have with staff and law enforcement to report suspicions of weapons on campus or to report anything they see or hear. That is proof that it is effective.
For this reason, we do think that the moment has come to adopt weapon detection systems in order to add an additional layer of protection, based on both internal data and national research and trends. And that’s exactly what it is—an additional line of defense to our already established safety procedures.
Can you describe the
district s approach to adding
weapons detection systems in schools and what the
rollout will look like
in terms of which schools will get upgrades when?
Garner They will, in fact, be deployed in each of our high schools on a weekly basis, but this obviously hinges on a number of potential problems with training availability and other things. Once more, however, the systems will be present in every high school. There is a timeline that specifies which campuses will experience deployment, and our aim is to ensure that everyone is deployed by summer. Since this concerns our safety and security, I personally would rather not discuss it; nevertheless, by summer, all of them will have the mechanisms in place. That’s what we want.
Feinberg: By the end of the spring semester 2025, we want to make sure that HISD and all high schools have the weapons detection system in place, as Chief Garner stated. Making sure that this is carried out effectively and safely at each site in terms of visitor and student admission as well as those kinds of screenings is one of the things that we are truly dedicated to.
Therefore, we now have a strategy that will enable us to deploy at every school by the end of the spring semester. Depending on how quickly we re-install it in schools, we may need to make adjustments to that plan. In order to ensure that we get it right at every campus and that students can enter efficiently and do not waste valuable instructional time in the morning due to a slowed entry process, we may need to slow it down in order to learn from what is working well and what we might want to do differently as we implement in the first couple of schools.
Going off of that,
some may be wary
that these could take longer and have students waiting before their first class. How
time-effective are these
weapon systems given that each high school has thousands of students coming each day?
Feinberg: We have planned for deployment at each campus in a very strategic manner. This implies that we are utilizing the student population or enrollment figures to determine the amount of systems that will be accessible at each school. Therefore, there would be additional towers or lanes for students to enter through in the morning if a school had more students—perhaps 3,000 students. Therefore, a larger campus will have a more efficient procedure than a smaller one due to the additional towers and lanes. Although some of our campuses may only have 300, 400, or 500 students, they would still have fewer towers, and we are still certain that we could still efficiently process those students.
A larger school would have more staff available to assist with the process in the morning than a smaller school, so it’s not necessarily a one-size-fits-all approach to implementation. We’ve done a lot of pre-planning and worked with division leaders and campus leaders to ensure that we’re not only putting the right infrastructure in place to make this process run effectively, but we’re also staffing it appropriately. We are certain that we can accomplish this in a safe and effective manner that will provide an additional degree of security for the employees because of the pre-planning that we undertake, as well as the learning and improvements we make along the route.
What exactly does a
weapons detection system refer to
is it a metal detector, security guards scanning kids, or something else?
Garner: The tower bases that you pass through are the weapon detection systems that we are putting into place. Removing a backpack, laptop bag, or purse is not necessary. As they pass through, students will be requested to remove their laptops and hand them off to an administrator. However, neither law enforcement nor security personnel will be stationed there. Administrators will be on staff. If a weapon is believed or believed to be present, law enforcement will become engaged.
How does this new system
differ from previous methods
used, such as a traditional metal detector, wand or bag checks?
Garner: It has the capacity to issue warnings. If there is a warning that someone might be (carrying) one, it basically falls under the same heading as, you know, weapon detection, which is an additional layer of protection for our campuses to ensure the safety of our students, employees, and guests.
What is the
total cost
and how is the district
paying for it
?
Garner: A little more than $1.9 million will be spent on the systems after the district received a grant for safety and facility improvement. All covered by a grant, once more.
Can parents expect the weapons security system to be
implemented districtwide
?
GarnerGiven the magnitude of HISD, having a weapon detection system on every campus is obviously exceedingly expensive. We are acting strategically because of this. The intention is to gradually extend it to elementary and middle schools, beginning with high school. In the meantime, though, we already have mechanisms in place, with cops deployed to middle and high schools. In addition to our visitor management protocols and other measures in place to ensure the safety of our younger student body, we are adding armed guards to our elementary campuses.
The Landing employs Angelica Perez as a general assignment reporter. You may contact her personally at [email protected] or follow her on Instagram and X at @byangelicaperez.
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