CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – During a meeting this week, Montgomery County commissioners voiced their concerns to the Sheriff’s Office and the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System about the new weapons detection systems being proposed at Rossview High.
The proposal comes months after the implementation of a two-lane weapons detection system at Northwest High. With some money left over from the original pilot program, MCSO and CMCSS are asking the county to appropriate funding for three single lane units at Rossview High.
Rossview was chosen to be the second pilot site earlier this year, because it has the largest student population with more complex logistics. If installing the Evolv system is approved by the County Commission, the data and feedback from Northwest and Rossview will guide the Sheriff’s Office and school system for future plans, according to previous reports.
Commissioner questions
At Monday’s meeting, Commissioner Jeremiah Walker asked Sheriff John Fuson if there is data that shows how successful the two-lane unit has been at Northwest.
Fuson responded, “Since the pilot program began at the beginning of the school year, the success that we’re seeing is no weapons have been detected and brought into the school. … It’s definitely been a success in the manner of not finding any weapons coming through the system, and that’s exactly what we want.”
Fuson added that the system has also helped decrease the number of vapes in the high school, which Schools Director Dr. Jean Luna-Vedder later confirmed.
Walker asked how many weapons were found at Northwest High the year prior. Fuson said only one weapon was found last year at Northwest High, but all it takes is one weapon coming into the building.
Commissioner David Harper asked if the commission could see the study information that has been compiled before and after the weapons detection system was installed earlier this year.
‘We’re committing ourselves to dollars we shouldn’t be doing’
Harper also spoke on the length of the contractual agreement.
“I’m looking at this contract, which is a four-year contract,” Harper said. “Typically, we budget a year at a time. My concern is we have a four-year contract here, and say we decide to put it (the system) in every high school. “Now we have four-year contracts for each school, and we’re committing ourselves to dollars we shouldn’t be doing. We’re making our decisions for other commissioners as a result, and I’m real hesitant to do that.”
Harper said school safety is a concern for everyone in the room, but he also is worried about making prudent decisions for the community.
Preventing mass shootings
Commissioner John Gannon raised the issue of mass shootings. “The safety to our students is paramount, obviously. However, my concern with this whole thing is that it’s setting us up, to a certain extent, to say that this would have stopped something like what happened at Covenant (Elementary) in Nashville or any of those other mass shootings.”
Gannon asked Fuson to explain how a weapons detection system would have stopped a mass shooting such as Covenant from happening. Fuson said it’s public knowledge that the Covenant shooter in Nashville visited another school first.
“They (the shooter) left that school because of the presence of law enforcement and other safety measures in play, so that’s a good case in point,” Fuson said.
Fuson said there are technologies out there that would detect weapons within 250 feet of any building, so that’s something else his office is doing research on.
Additional SROs
Since MCSO and the school system are asking for three weapons detection systems at Rossview High, the plan would be for the school resource officers (SROs) from Rossview Middle and Elementary to come over to help manage the systems in the morning.
When commissioners objected to this, Luna-Vedder explained that these same SROs are on the high school campus before school anyway.
“You have to remember, some of our elementary schools don’t start until 8:45 a.m.,” Luna-Vedder said. “We have kids coming to our high school campuses at 6:45 a.m., which is a significant difference. I promise you, we are not going to shortchange any school; we have fought too hard to make sure we have representation.”
Support for detection systems
Commissioner Jason Knight thanked Fuson for being proactive and said with the volume of students at Rossview High, the county should be able to obtain some “really good data.”
Commissioner Jorge Padro said he understands his colleagues’ concerns, but asked how the commission can put a price on a student’s life.
The County Commission will meet Monday, Nov. 13, and vote on whether to expand the weapons detection system pilot program.