DAVENPORT, Iowa — With the discovery of multiple guns within Davenport school buildings since July of this year, the Davenport Community School District plans to install weapons detectors at district secondary schools.
The Davenport School Board met Monday night to discuss plans and next steps for the proposed project that would lead to the installation of 19 weapons detection systems district-wide.
"We know there was a situation in the district last week. Why would we put off any longer?" Board Member Linda Hayes said.
The school district said that four students have been found to be in possession of a gun inside district secondary schools since July of this year. The school district and Davenport Police Department have also investigated several incidents of photos on social media showing students with firearms outside of school. It believes adding these devices will increase overall building safety.
The district plans to have a core team made up of a representative from each high school and junior high school in the district that will be tasked with gathering input from building administrators and campus security teams to develop a best practice for the safety plan.
The total cost of the weapons detectors is estimated to be $333,011, with $150,000 being covered by the State of Iowa's Safety Grant. That leaves the district with a projected tab of $183,011.
Those weapons detectors are already in use at Brady Street Stadium. Board members said the lines moved quickly, especially as people got used to what they needed to remove from their bags.
Student board members said they're in favor of weapons detectors. That includes Mid City senior Nevaeh Rivera-Painter. She said she had questions about how everything would work going into the meeting.
"But if it's something to make our school safer, and people feel safer, then I think it's something we should definitely do," Rivera-Painter said.
During the meeting, she asked how the weapons detectors would impact the start of the school day.
"Security is not convenient, and we're gonna move in that direction," Superintendent TJ Schneckloth said. He's worked with the district's security team to research the weapons detectors.
"We have to look at what does the staffing look like, we have to look at the policy and procedures, we have to communicate with our students, we have to communicate with our families," Schneckloth said. "As fast as we can do that in a highly efficient way, that's how fast we're going to implement them."
Schneckloth said he's been talking with Rock Island and Clinton about their weapons detection systems. He said he's studying their policies for Davenport schools.
The board will vote on the purchase at the Dec. 16 meeting once the security team has a final estimate.