How will Horry Schools’ multi-million security upgrades stop guns in schools? What we know
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Horry County Schools started its new school year on Monday, bringing with it a multi-million dollar upgraded security system and safety procedures for its students and staff.
The new security measures come after several incidents that occurred the previous school year, including a middle school student bringing a gun to school. The school system also replaced its security director.
The student managed to bring the weapon into the school in a clear backpack even though the school had a metal detector and did random checks of bags.
The security upgrades follow a nationwide trend of school districts purchasing new artificial intelligence software to help detect weapons and prevent them from entering their schools.
But will the new security measures help reduce such incidents in schools?
“No system is 100% infallible,” Mike Frederick, the new executive director of safety and security for Horry County Schools, said Wednesday, “but this system is as close to that” as it can be.
Frederick said it’s not that metal doesn’t get into the schools, but that weapons don’t get in.
What has changed?
Frederick’s hiring was announced Aug. 12, about a week before the new school year started. Frederick has more than 30 years of law enforcement and public safety experience, including as the former Surfside Beach police chief.
The previous security director, David Beaty, was placed on administrative leave after being asked to resign or retire in March. The request came about a month after the incident involving the gun at Myrtle Beach Middle School.
The school board took a no-confidence vote on Horry County Schools’ security measures on March 11. Beaty’s contract was up on June 30.
The gun incident resulted in the school board announcing in February that the district was looking into adding weapon detection systems to all schools. The district did purchase 259 new security systems for its campuses this school year, including 128 OPENGATE Weapons Detection Systems and 131 Garrett Paragon Metal Detectors at a cost of $3 million, according school spokesperson Lisa Bourcier by email.
The OPENGATE system can screen people carrying backpacks, purses or bags for threats without the need for the items to be taken and searched. When a weapon or metal threat is detected, an alarm will be activated.
The new security measures also include the district’s 48,000 students being required to carry clear backpacks to school.
With the new AI detectors, schools can screen the students daily without having the screening slow down the beginning of the school day.
However, in order for the process to not become backed up or delay the school day, the sensitivity of the detector has been dialed down, Frederick said. The screening instead is used to detect certain shapes or density that would indicate a weapon or particular dangerous item.
Metal will still get into schools
Frederick would not talk specifically about security measures but said that the new weapon technology was added to every school, including elementary.
And although the sites are using metal detectors, it is possible for metal to still get through. But Frederick said it’s such items as knives and firearms that the system is designed to locate.
“This is a very safe and very effective system,” he said. “Will a paper clip or belt buckle get in, absolutely.”
He has spent the last few days going from site to site to make sure that it is operating smoothly and that the screening is not causing students to become backed up, which could delay the start of school.
Frederick said, “It’s a new mindset,” training to make the focus on weapons detection and using a secondary search for other items. “... Our odds of detecting that weapon has gone up exponentially.”
Students and parents have to remember that national statistics show that weapon attempts and violence in school “is very rare... but we don’t go by statistics,” he said.
Frederick likened the safety measures to wearing a seat belt, adding that you don’t believe you will hit a concrete barrier while driving, but you’re not so sure you won’t.
“School security is our seat belt,” he said.
This story was originally published August 23, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
