Fayette OKs metal detector searches of students entering school and at random

Students can be searched by metal detectors upon entering school but also at random under policy changes approved Monday by Fayette County Public Schools.

School board members had little new conversation as they approved the policy 5-0.

But recently, the district had announced that Frederick Douglass High School would be the first school in the district with fixed metal detectors after a student there accidentally shot himself in the hand while in class and that other middle and high schools could soon follow. The metal detectors at Frederick Douglass will be in place by the end of the school year, Fayette Superintendent Manny Caulk said after the meeting Monday night.

“This is an important step for Fayette County Public Schools in order to set the foundation for our implementation of stationary metal detectors,” he said.

In the span of six hours last month, three teenagers died of gunshot wounds in Lexington. And in the span of nine days this month, students from three high schools — Frederick Douglass, Henry Clay and Paul Laurence Dunbar — were arrested on charges involving guns and the safety of campuses.

Under the plan, all students entering a premises could be searched or students could be searched on a random basis, provided “a non-discriminatory, random selection process is used.”

Individual students could be searched when there is reasonable suspicion to believe the student is concealing a weapon, the new policy states.

School administrators would be trained to use the metal detectors.

Searches would be reasonable in scope and duration, could not be excessively intrusive and would have to be conducted in a uniform manner, the policy says.

Monday’s vote represents a reversal in the district’s position on fixed metal detectors and searches of all students. Originally that was thought to be too expensive and time consuming.

Officials also on Monday night explained the district’s new emergency notification and mass communication app called FCPS KY, designed to provide information more quickly.

This story was originally published March 26, 2018 at 8:48 PM with the headline "Fayette OKs metal detector searches of students entering school and at random."