CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Following a series of questions and concerns posed by the Montgomery County Commission during last week’s informal meeting, the Sheriff’s Office and the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System decided to pull a resolution that would have appropriated funding for three single-lane weapon detection systems at Rossview High.
The concerns ranged from the length of the contract with Evolv Technology to asking how this system would have prevented previous mass shootings such as what took place at Covenant Elementary, according to previous reports.
CMCSS spokesperson Anthony Johnson told Clarksville Now the school system and MCSO pulled the resolution to allow them more time to work with Evolv to study and address the questions.
The resolution is set to return to the agenda in February, according to County Mayor Wes Golden.
Success of pilot program at Northwest
“The first phase of the Evolv weapons detection system pilot at Northwest High School has been successful, and CMCSS looks forward to the opportunity to expand the pilot with MCSO to the second planned site, Rossview High School,” Johnson said.
“Overall, feedback from the employees, students, families and the community to school and district leaders has been positive. In a recent employee survey, the percent agreement with questions related to school safety and order at Northwest High increased by 16 points from the spring 2023 survey and is 10 points higher than the average score at all eight high schools.”
In addition, CMCSS data shows that the number of behavior incidents at Northwest High are down 33.92% from the same timeframe of last school year. Johnson added the high school has also seen a 50% reduction in THC/nicotine vape incidents since the weapons detection system had been installed.
“Although no weapons have been brought to NWHS and thus detected by Evolv, the benefit of Evolv is not just detection but deterrence and prevention.”
Montgomery County Sheriff John Fuson added to the comments made by CMCSS and said, “Extending this pilot at Rossview HS will give us additional data due to the school having multiple entry points. Additionally, because Rossview HS shares similar architecture with several other high schools, the added data will assist in the future implementation of the system at other schools.
“Further evaluation at NWHS will also give us an opportunity to gather more detailed information to address questions raised by some of our County Commissioners. Our goal here is to obtain more detailed information to ensure that our County Commissioners are fully supportive of the EVOLV system and its capabilities. After a discussion with CMCSS Director, Dr. Luna-Vedder, we collectively decided to pull the resolution until February.”
This article has been updated with comments made by Montgomery County Sherrif John Fuson.