As Rockledge High School student Gracie Davis heard her school intercom call for a shelter in place, she thought it was only a drill, until it upgraded to a lockdown. Minutes later, the SWAT team arrived.
“No one was really taking it seriously until my teacher said it wasn’t a drill,” Davis said. “We had no idea what the extent of the situation was: it could’ve all been nothing, but we were waiting to hear gunshots outside our room.”
On Oct. 4, the Rockledge Police Department received a report of a student with a firearm at Rockledge High School.
“I was honestly terrified. It was one of those things where you never think it’ll happen to you or at your school until it does,” Davis said. “I just kept thinking at what point do I start texting everyone saying I love them? And it made me so upset to even have to think that.”
With around 78 school shootings just this year (CNN), Brevard Public Schools (BPS) announced the implementation of CEIA OpenGate “advanced weapons detection systems” in all public high schools in Brevard.
“If we had the metal detectors prior to this, it would’ve never happened,” Davis said. “The whole thing still makes me so sad to think about how we have to worry about this and what school has now become just in the past years. I remember in kindergarten, the only drills we would have would be for a fire or tornado, and now we have bomb drills, shooting drills and metal detectors.”
Rockledge implemented its OpenGate systems on Nov. 20.
“I was definitely scared to come back to school the Monday after the incident, every time someone would come on the announcements my heart would skip a beat thinking it was happening all over again,” Davis said. “The idea of the metal detectors definitely makes me feel a lot better because if anyone wanting to bring a gun on campus now, it would be next to impossible.”
West Shore will be receiving these metal detection systems on Jan. 21, and they will go into effect on Jan. 22.
“I have no concerns with the deployment of the metal detectors,” Principal Buster Clark said. “I am fully confident that our team, adults and students, will be able to navigate this with minimal impact.”
However, senior Rooney Saleh disagrees.
“This will disrupt my daily life, making everything feel more rushed and chaotic in the mornings,” Saleh said. “With the new tardy policy, I’ll have to leave home earlier, which is frustrating, but even then, I might still be late. On top of that, the whole process is going to feel stressful and probably set a negative tone for the rest of the day.”
The implementation of security measures like metal detectors stems from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, a result of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The Commission was formed to specifically analyze the events of the 2018 school shooting and other mass violence incidents in Florida, addressing recommendations and system improvements to enhance school safety.
“So I think it all gets traced back to the Stoneman Douglas commission,” Clark said. “Metal detectors are not necessarily a mandate yet, but we believe, based on what’s been happening, that it can’t be far out. Similarly, we believe that in some time in the near future, there’s probably going to be some kind of digital or keyed access to entryways and doors and classrooms.”
Concerns over safety have been heightened in the community following a recent incident. On Oct. 20, a backpack containing a firearm was found abandoned in a parking lot near Suntree Elementary. Shortly after, a Viera Middle School student was arrested when they came to retrieve the backpack.
“I was scared and nervous,” Suntree elementary literacy coach Heather Leathers said. “I knew that we had people here to watch and protect us but not knowing who was involved, what the motive would be, who the target was, made me very anxious. We train as teachers how to handle situations and we practice all the time and we always take it seriously, but you still know it’s practice. It’s different when it’s a real situation.”
Her daughter, senior Addyson Leathers, said the incident prompted her to rethink how close to home such dangers could strike.
“It’s just a crazy thing to think about, like I’ve seen that school shootings are becoming less rare, but this really put it into perspective,” Addyson said. “That’s my mom.”
For Heather Leathers, the proximity of the discovery added another layer of unease.
“The neighborhood where the backpack was found shares a fence with our school. It is very close,” she said. “We had an event on the Friday before it was found at the school with hundreds of kids and parents here at the school, very close to the border of our school and the neighborhood. We didn’t know how long the backpack had been there so it was scary to think it could have been there when there were so many people here or to think it could have been placed there by someone who was on campus Friday night.”
Clark says this incident is an example of how security measures like metal detectors are important, however are not a complete solution.
“It is not going to prevent a school tragedy, but it is an additional layer,” Clark said. “I believe the only solution is human intervention. It is people being vigilant and communicating. No mechanical intervention is going to stop a tragedy like that.”
Melbourne High School was the first to implement these OpenGate systems on October 23. Their principal, James Kirk, said the transition was nearly seamless for the students.
“The overall deployment has gone very well,” Kirk said. “Students who followed our instructions about what to leave at home, or take out of their backpacks, have not been delayed entering the campus.”
To help students adapt to the new system, Melbourne High School implemented a series of measures, including training videos and practice opportunities. Kirk said this training was essential so “that the student body knew what to expect.”
“We developed a series of training videos that showed the student body exactly what the screening process would look like, what they could carry to school and what they had to remove from their backpack,” Kirk said. “Then we shared our training videos with our families and asked them to review them with their student. We sent multiple reminders to our families in emails, text messages, and phone calls. Finally, we set up an OpenGate system during lunch for our students to see and interact with before deployment and encouraged students to walk through the system with their belongings so they could see if what they carried would cause an alert.”
Kirk said this training was essential so “that the student body knew what to expect,” which ensured their smooth implementation of the OpenGate systems.
“The student experience with Open Gate would be closer to going through security at Universal Studios than navigating the TSA screening line at the airport,” Kirk said. “My advice for students is to watch and listen closely to the training information provided by their school.”
The installation of the OpenGate systems at West Shore will follow a similar plan. OpenGate will arrive at West Shore on Jan. 21 to install the metal detectors and train the staff. The next day, the systems will be in full effect.
“Hopefully we can get the fencing in well before January 22 and we can experiment with it,” Clark said. “We just have to see once this fence is established, is [the high school loop] still functional? Is it convenient and accessible for parents to drop off there, and for you guys to get into school? I just don’t know until it’s there, because the last thing I want is or it to be super slow and backed up, and people are getting frustrated.”
Each OpenGate system will cost about $17,000, according to WKMG News 6. However, this money will not take away from any funding for academic needs.
To ensure proper staffing, three staff members will be assigned to each location, occupying a total of nine staff in the mornings.
“In the event you walk through and set it off, two [staff members] will be there to ask if you have anything that might be setting it off,” Clark said. “You hand them the [item] and go back through. If you set it off a third time, they will probably do a search of your bag.”
Clark explained that he plans to train as much faculty as possible, including administrators, teachers with first-period planning, the PE department, and any other faculty available during morning hours.
“The difficult thing will be morning meetings for teachers and staff because the moment you guys start arriving and we open campus, [the metal detectors] have to be staffed,” Clark said. “We just have to get creative on how we’re gonna do some of those things that have been the way we always do business.”
Above all, Clark emphasizes that the safety of students remains his main concern.
“My number one priority is that when a parent drops one of you off here in my care, that I send you home safe to them,” he said.