‘Kids first, safety first’
South Bend schools to implement weapons detector at major events
SOUTH BEND — A gray battery-operated safety detector stood at Washington High School’s entrance as students, parents and faculty walked through to watch the Washington Panthers play against the Marian Knights in game one of basketball sectionals on Feb. 27, causing a mix of apprehension and hope.
This new stage of prevention in student safety and event security has some parents in disbelief that this is the new reality for their children in schools.
“When I went to school, we didn’t have to deal with this stuff,” John Young Middle School mother Kaniece Davidovic said. “The new school,” she said, referring to students now, “has to.”
She said she puts her own feelings aside to know that everyone in the building will be safe. Davidovic’s daughter attends John Young Middle School in Mishawaka, where safety detectors have not been implemented, but as they attended basketball sectionals for her nephew, she said, “these are things they have to deal with.”
Safety detectors will be present at major sporting and extracurricular events that draw large crowds, South Bend Community School Corporation Safety and Emergency Preparedness Director Eric Crittendon said. “These things have no eyes, so they see no color,” he said. “We’re not discriminating one color against another. Everybody walks through them.”
The school board previously approved the funding towards the safety detectors in November 2023 according to The Tribune’s reporting partners at WNDU. They purchased ten CEIA Open Gate security detectors for nearly $200,000. Safety detectors are placed
on the recommended setting for schools, which detects handguns and tactical knives. Keys and phones will not be detected.
His goal is to have the detectors installed in South Bend schools within six months to a year, intending them to become a permanent fixture, pending board approval.
If there’s a call about a weapon being brought into a school, Crittendon said, officials will have every kid run through the safety detectors for that extra layer of safety.
“When we have isolated threats that come into the schools, these can be deployed,” he said.
The portable, lightweight detectors, weighing around 30 pounds per pillar, allow them to be placed anywhere and are operational within five minutes of set up.
Other schools have had success using this same brand of safety detectors, Crittendon said, describing his experience of visiting a school in Fort Wayne. “It doesn’t delay kids from getting in schools, and once they learn the process, it’s very easy.”
Resident Jeanetta White said it’s a shame that it’s come to this.
“It’s shame you have to do that in a high school in this day and age,” White said. “Why should the kids who want to do right be punished for the kids who do wrong?”
White has a granddaughter who attends Marian High School and said she’s scared to death for her granddaughter to come to school.
“It can happen at Marian, too,” she said. “Schools are schools, kids are kids. It’s bad news all over.”
Despite her apprehension, the safety detectors make White feel better about her granddaughter attending school. “I’m all for it,” she said. “Kids first, safety first.”
The safety detectors will “detour a whole lot of negativity,” White said. “Sports are supposed to be positive. It’s supposed to be for the kids, for the enjoyment of the kids and spectators. Everyone should feel safe.”
The implementation of safety detectors adds an additional layer to the school’s safety, Crittendon said.
But, he added, “We can’t prevent everything.”
Even so, he prefers the school’s proactive approach.
“We don’t want to set these up after we have an incident,” Crittendon said, saying that by then, it’ll be too late.