Leaders want to add high-tech security to protect Lancaster County schools

LANCASTER COUNTY, S.C. — After Lancaster High School brought in extra law enforcement Wednesday in response to a shooting threat, Channel 9′s Tina Terry learned the district wants to add some high-tech security to keep guns out.

School leaders have been researching new technology that they believe can help keep weapons out of schools. But there’s a catch: Just one device costs more than $70,000.

PREVIOUS STORIES:

• With growth in Lancaster County, leaders eye $588-million bond for schools
• Committee discusses proposed $585 million schools bond referendum in Lancaster County
• Leaders in Lancaster County put 2 tax referendums on November ballot

Tiffany Foster heard that a student threatened to bring a gun to Lancaster High School on Wednesday.

“We’ve got to do more to protect our kids,” Foster said. “Because there is so much violence with the youth in our town.”

The Lancaster County School District’s safety director, Lonnie Plyler, told Channel 9′s Tina Terry more about a plan to proactively keep guns out of schools.

“Basically, we’d like to buy a weapons detection system rather than a metal detector,” he said “It’s less intrusive. We can check out a lot more students.”

Plyler is talking about an Evolv weapons detection system. He said it can scan thousands of students an hour. It can recognize faces and it can recognize gun pieces that have been broken down.

“With this, it would be automatic,” Plyler said. “They just walk through. If there is a weapon or a piece, it flags them and we can pull them over to check the B.B. to make sure there’s nothing in the schools.”

Plyler said just one device runs about $74,000. District leaders said a grant and money from a proposed $500 million bond referendum would help put one at every school. It’s technology Foster said could make a difference in local schools.

“For our children, I think we should do anything to protect them,” Foster said. “I don’t think we should put a price on it.”

The threat Wednesday was posted on a bathroom wall and on social media. No arrests have been made so far.

The bond referendum will appear on the November ballot.

(WATCH BELOW: District apologizes for confusion over bus routes on first day of school in Lancaster County)

District apologizes for confusion over bus routes on first day of school in Lancaster County

©2024 Cox Media Group