CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools prepare to start safety screenings, the district can learn valuable lessons about the effectiveness of hand-held metal detectors from other districts across the country
The wands are among several security measures CMS is taking in the wake of last year's shooting at Butler High School.
The most recent federal statistics show just 4.5 percent of all public schools used metal detectors for random checks during the 2015-16 school year.
While the metal detectors are making a difference in other places, they have also failed to catch guns in some instances.
In February 2018, a student brought a gun to a Los Angeles school, hurting her classmates when it went off. That shooting occurred in a school district that requires random metal detector searches at every middle and high school every day. Still, the Los Angeles Unified School District said daily checks have deterred weapons.
"Although random metal detector searches began in 1993, a written policy mandating that such searches be conducted on a daily basis was implemented in the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2011," a district spokesperson said.
"Daily searches are conducted at all middle and high schools. Approximately 100 items were recovered during the random metal detector searches in the 2017/2018 school year. The items included knives, imitation firearms, and firecrackers," the spokesperson added.
Another shooting at a school with both walkthrough metal detectors and wands in Atlanta in 2013 raised questions about the effectiveness of metal detectors. Students said they weren't checked the day before the shooting even though it was district protocol.
Just a few months ago in Lexington, KY, a school reportedly found a student with a loaded gun in the hours after security used a wand to check the child.
A National Criminal Justice Reference Service report said most hand-held metal detection devices work well, but "the hand-held metal detector is only as good as the operator using it."
While metal detecting wands aren't meant to be the only solution, Knox County Schools in Tennessee said they're an important tool.
"We have them available to our schools and we use them when we believe it is both appropriate and necessary to do so," Knox County Schools Chief Operating Officer Russ Oaks said.
"The various types of weapons we have found have come to our attention in various ways. Metal detecting devices are an important tool for school security, but they are not without limitations or drawbacks. People are and always will be our best security asset," Oaks added.
Just last summer, Indiana's governor offered hand-held metal detectors to every school at no cost, and the Texas Association of School Boards recommended using some kind of metal detecting system but urged districts to avoid rushing in. Some districts have also dealt with pushback from critics who argue metal detectors criminalize students.
While CMS isn't modeling its wand program after any other school district, the district has said it is being deliberate in its training and procedures to make sure students' rights and privacy are respected and there's minimal disruption.
In addition to portable metal detectors, CMS has also said it will use bag checks and dogs at randomly selected high schools.