Drug and Weapon 'Amnesty Boxes' To Be Tested at 4 Philadelphia Public Schools
By Mike DeNardo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The School District of Philadelphia is hoping that steel "amnesty boxes" will keep students from bringing weapons or drugs into school buildings.
They look like library book drops. But they're lined with Kevlar.
The school district next week will identify four high schools where steel "amnesty boxes" will be placed, allowing students to put weapons or drugs inside, no questions asked.
School police department chief inspector Carl Holmes says it's a chance for students to get clean before they go through the metal detectors.
"If I have narcotics on me at 7:30 in the morning, there's an issue here," he says. "I'm a minor with a weapon -- there's an issue here. This may get them to recognize, 'Hey, I've got a problem,' without getting a criminal record."
The boxes are made by welding students at Randolph Career and Technical High School.
Johnny Brown, a junior at Randolph, thinks the concept just might work.
"If I was in that situation and I saw the box, I'd be, like, 'I need that. I'm going to put it there because I'm a football player and if I'm getting scholarships and I go do something stupid, I lost my scholarship,' " he hypothesized today.
Four boxes are being installed to start. Holmes says he'd like to see them outside all Philadelphia high schools.
In a district in which more than 400 weapons -- mostly shanks and knives -- were confiscated last school year, administrators hope that these amnesty boxes will give students one more chance to think twice about bringing a weapon to school.
