Broward parents asked to check backpacks for items that may set off metal detectors
MIAMI - Before school starts on Monday, Broward County high schools are asking parents to check their student's backpacks for items that could set off new metal detectors.
Jailyn Ocasio is one of the roughly sixty-seven thousand students who will be walking through metal detectors every day.
Ocasio said she's looking forward to the new safety measure.
"It definitely does make me feel a little bit safer," she said. "I feel they're a necessity for our safety. It's a really good process. It's going to take a few times to get used to. But you do like the idea of it."
Students will be allowed to walk through with their book bags, but Superintendent Dr. Howard Hepburn warned that common items like laptops, binders, umbrellas and sunglass cases could set the metal detectors off.
The superintendent asked parents to help smooth out the process.
"Making sure they're going through backpacks. Making sure they're having conversations with their students," Hepburnn said."
"Hey, as soon as you get off the bus or as soon as you get out the car please pull those things out that are going to make the metal detectors go off. So, you can go through it with ease."
If the metal detector goes off, students will go to a second station to be wanded down.
This new measure was tested at two summer school locations.
Hepburn said the process won't be perfect on the first day of school.
"But we spent a lot of time planning over the summer. We feel comfortable that this is going to be executed properly from day one," he said.
The amount of metal detectors at each school varies based on the amount of students at that school and the size.