The Nashville highschool the place a teen gunman killed a fellow pupil final week had no metallic detectors — apparently as a result of directors suppose they could possibly be racist.
A former board member informed The Submit that the misguided directors are chargeable for protecting them out even over many dad and mom’ objections.
“I knew this day was gonna happen,” mentioned Fran Bush, previously a Metro Nashville Public Faculties board member.
“I knew it was gonna happen just because it’s like a free open door, everybody coming in,” she mentioned of the Tennessee district’s colleges, together with Antioch Excessive, the place 17-year-old shooter Solomon Henderson murdered a 16-year-old classmate Wednesday.
Bush, who served on the MNPS board from 2018 to 2022, mentioned she pushed for metallic detectors all through her tenure however that district Director Adrienne Battle “didn’t want to hear it” — at the same time as dad and mom backed requires metallic detectors to maintain their youngsters secure.
After Henderson killed fellow teen Josselin Corea Escalante after which fatally shot himself, Battle informed reporters that the district didn’t have metallic detectors as a result of analysis has proven they will have “unintended consequences.”
Precisely what penalties Battle was referring to stay unclear, however MNPS shared two research with The Submit that recommend metallic detectors instill a way of concern amongst college students and make them really feel unsafe. The research additionally questioned metallic detectors’ effectiveness for protecting weapons out of locations.
One of many research shared by MNPS mentioned metallic detectors disproportionately goal college students of colour, too — a element that others research over time have centered on, with findings suggesting that instills a way of concern for minority college students.
However Bush characterised such “unintended consequences” as mere excuses — calling them “a bunch of bull.
“There’s no study [that] shows metal detectors don’t work,” she mentioned. “If that was the case, then we won’t have them in our airports, sports games, we wouldn’t have them in all these places that require security,” Bush mentioned.
What’s extra, Bush mentioned, the scholars themselves informed her they wished metallic detectors when she was doing her personal analysis on the proposal.
“I went to the high school, I went to the middle school, and I also went to the elementary school,” she mentioned. “These children will tell you they don’t have a fear of metal detectors. They don’t have fear of something is gonna help protect them. That’s what they want. They want to be protected.”
A number of districts in Tennessee at the moment have metallic detectors of their colleges, and MNPS beforehand put in AI-powered gun-detection cameras to alert authorities if any individual attracts a weapon inside its colleges.
Such an AI system was energetic at Antioch Excessive, however it didn’t detect Henderson’s gun when he drew it within the faculty cafeteria.
However Bush says “common sense” measures so simple as metallic detectors on the entrance doorways would “absolutely” have stopped Henderson — who carried a pistol with out drawback onto faculty grounds — and that MNPS had “every opportunity” to put in them.
Throughout COVID, MNPS was granted thousands and thousands of {dollars} in reduction funds, which Bush mentioned included allowances for putting in new safety measures reminiscent of metallic detectors.
However the administration was by no means , Bush claimed.
“Why you choose not to move forward on something it’s gonna save the lives of children?” Bush mentioned.
That resistance comes amidst a surge in alarming incidents throughout Tennessee public colleges.
Incidents of scholars being caught with weapons have spiked as much as greater than 50% lately, with 127 being discovered with handguns in the course of the 2021-2022 faculty 12 months and 13 having a rifle or shotgun, in keeping with the Tennessee Division of Schooling.
That’s up from 75 incidents throughout the 2018-2019 faculty 12 months.
Battle didn’t reply to requests for remark, however the faculty district highlighted a number of safety measures thate have been in place on its campuses, together with police and safety personnel, shatter-resistant glass home windows, random searches utilizing metal-detecting wands and Okay-9s, emergency alert buttons for lecturers and “strong communication” between college students, employees and fogeys.
“When weapons have been discovered in schools before, it has often been the result of people telling a trusted adult about their knowledge or suspicions,” a college district rep informed The Submit.
“Bringing a firearm to high school is a zero-tolerance offense topic to obligatory expulsion along with prison penalties.
“We are exploring all options to strengthen security at Antioch High School, as well as other schools in the district.”
