Santa Fe trustees OK metal detectors
Metal detectors will be installed in all four of Santa Fe ISD’s campuses after its Board of Trustees voted Monday evening to accept at least 16 devices that had been donated by two private companies and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
The 4-2 vote was the culmination of weeks of contentious debate that divided the small northern Galveston County community in the wake of the latest mass school shooting, in which a 17-year-old gunman on May 18 killed 10 and wounded 13 at Santa Fe High School. Trustees Patrick Kelly and Eric Davenport voted against the measure.
Board President J.R. “Rusty” Norman said after the vote that a majority of people who reached out to him and other trustees asked that the detectors be installed.
“Are metal detectors the only answer? No,” Norman said. “Can metal detectors be a deter-
rent? I believe they can, which is why I voted for them.”
The exact number of metal detectors that will be donated and installed remains unknown. In a July news release, Lt. Gov. Patrick’s office pledged 10 devices to the district, but Santa Fe ISD Chief Financial Officer Lee Townsend said Monday that his office would not pledge an exact number until the board approved of the donation. American Guard Services, Inc., pledged to donate six of the machines, and Garrett Metal Detectors offered to do a free assessment of the high school and donate enough walk-through detectors to run a scanning program there.
Costs despite donations
Despite the donated security devices, installing the detectors will be costly for the district. In the short-term, it will cost about $60,000 to get electricity and other parts ready for the machines, in addition to the $250,000 renovation to the entryway of Santa Fe High School that was approved earlier this month. If the district opts to renovate the entrances of its other schools to better fit the detectors, it would cost an additional estimated $1.45 million.
Staffing the machines with new campus safety assistants could cost between $403,920 and $673,200 this coming school year, depending on how many people the district decides to hire, according to agenda materials. Santa Fe ISD Police Chief Walter Braun proposed hiring from 19 to 31 assistants to monitor the machines and help teachers check bags in the district’s existing schools and its soon-to-be-opened elementary school.
Questions about metal detectors’ effectiveness and cost roiled parents and community members across Santa Fe in recent weeks.
Some, including Kelly, argued the devices would be expensive to operate and maintain, and that they would do little to stop a motivated shooter who did not fear arrest or death.
After the vote, Kelly said he considered all sides of the issue before casting his vote against the machines.
“I still think it’s a bad idea,” Kelly said, “but I will support the district.”
Others at the meeting, including Rosie Y. Stone, whose son Chris was killed in the shooting, said creating an additional layer of security would be worth the cost, even if they could not stop every weapon a student or stranger tried to bring onto campus.
‘Just the beginning’
After the meeting, Stone said she was happy with the decision but warned that the rollout of new security procedures would not be easy.
“This is just the beginning,” Stone said. “It’s not that we’re going to stop here — metal detectors aren’t the only answer. How many times do we upgrade our phones? We have to upgrade our security system every day.”
A 32-person security committee convened by the district unanimously recommended the district install the devices in all campuses. They pointed to Aldine and Spring ISDs in the northern Houston metro area as examples that metal detector programs could be cost effective and work as a deterrent for students who had planned to bring firearms and knives with them to school.
Bailee Sobnosky, a 16-year-old rising junior at Santa Fe High, said few students complained when school officials used metal-detecting wands to scan students and their bags when they returned the school after the shooting. She said she was glad walk-through metal detectors will be there when students return from summer break Aug. 20.
“It makes you feel a little bit safer,” Sobnosky said. “Anything that can make us feel better about walking back into that school is worth a shot.”
In other actions, the board unanimously approved another recommendation from the security committee on the district’s dress code. The committee did not recommend any changes to the dress code but did ask for a much more strict adherence to the current guidelines.