Harnett County School Board talk installing weapons detection system

LILLINGTON, N.C. (WTVD) -- Harnett County School Board talked about installing a weapons detection system at schools during their meeting Monday evening.

School Superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming said Monday night that they never looked seriously at metal detectors or any type of detection system, but times have changed after two back-to-back instances where a gun was found at two schools in the district.

"I think we have quickly learned that we are similar to other school districts around us more than we realized," he said.

One was at Erwin Elementary School, the other at Star Academy.

"This weapon detection technology is something the Harnett County School System has been researching since the beginning of the year and the last two and a half weeks with the discovery of two firearms within Harnett County Schools has made the need very evident," said School Board member Brad Abate who represents District 3

ABC11 spoke to national school safety expert Ken Trump who said metal detectors aren't the answer to the growing number of guns found on school campuses.

"We're concerned about too many school districts rushing to spend millions of dollars to put up shiny objects, metal detectors, new weapons detection systems, many of which won't even detect knives or small guns to tell parents, see we're making our schools safer. And in essence, creating security theater," Trump said.

Two options were reviewed, one of which involves a screen that indicates where the weapon is plus video capture.

That would cost $25,000 a year as part of a four-year subscription to lease.

The other system does not have a visual component but would cost just $18,000 to own.

While both are portable and can be used indoors and outdoors, they would each require a secondary checkpoint.

That technology would be similar to the devices we've seen being installed in other local districts including Johnston County Schools.

Monday night's conversation came after an uptick in threats against schools and several recent weapons scares on campuses across the area.