Students lined up, backpacks unzipping, chromebooks in hands, and whispers shared: January 31st, students saw the first usage of the new metal detecting program, Opengate by Ceia.
BCS announced the purchase of the security system via Facebook November 13th, but the rollout came as a surprise to many. The West Wind got an early taste of how the program works on January 30th as administrators were trained on the equipment by professionals from the company.
“The gates are pretty cool, and I think it is safe and better for the school,” said staff writer Jeremiah Gore. “I was held back for having a metal bottle of spray deodorant, and I was so scared.”
The technology is the same in airport security; the level at which it can detect threats can be changed based on what the school is looking for.
The Opengate creates a level of security for schools and other facilities, making sure the students feel protected and safe from shooters and attackers. With violence in schools at its current level, school officials wanted to increase safety of day-to-day operations as well as the safety of events.
“The metal detectors were first used in the entrance for baseball games,” said Sarah Donahoe, a Ceia representative sent to train BCS staff. “Now they are used in many places like airports, schools, sports centers, and other facilities.”
If you have been through the metal detectors, then you might have expected them to be the kind of metal detectors you find at our football games; the new ones use the same technology but at a more advanced, customizable level.
“You could find these metal detectors at any of the entrances to the school, and they will be placed at random,” said principal Scott Dalton. “The process takes a long time to go through with each student, but we are doing this because we want to make the school a safer place.”
The students should feel safe at West with the new metal detectors because they can detect people who bring things that they should not into the school.
“It makes me feel a little bit safer and should help let no bad things happen in our school,” said sophomore Irving Decena. “I would like it if the process was just a little faster, so students can get to class on time. I think it’s a waste of time, but it’s there for our school’s safety.”
Once you get to the school in the morning, you will get in the line and take anything that’s metal in your book bag like chromebooks, three ring binders, notebooks, and hard glass cases. As you get to the gate, you will hand the person your items and walk through it; if no alarms are raised, you are free to go. If the system triggers an alert, you will step to the side and be checked more thoroughly.
Once the studnnts got a first look at the metal detectors and experienced it, they had mixed emotions.
“The open gate metal detectors are dumb and confusing,” said freshman Chole Manly. “It makes students late to their classes in the morning: they should do the metal detectors once a month.”
Freshman Zoe McComb had similar concerns, “Going through it takes too much time and it’s dumb. Sometimes it detects things that it shouldn’t and it’s just too much to have to do in the morning. People were mad about it, so they might find ways to sneak things in or find a different entrance.”
Sophomore Faniah Green expressed her frustrations as well, “It takes forever for all of the students to get through. They should get rid of the metal detectors because it doesn’t make me feel safer and they only check the bag and not the person. Students can still bring whatever and still use things to harm other people, so it doesn’t mean everyone is safe.”
While many students seemed frustrated by the process, several saw the positives and believe it is worth the extra time. The metal detectors are here to make sure every student at West feels safe, and this is new for every student, so it might feel weird right now, but later on the process should be faster and more reliable for students to trust.
“The new metal detectors are freaking awesome,” said Junior Kevin Bland. “It helps us from attackers who might come into our school and that day when the metal detectors were first used, there were no kids who brought vapes into the school, which that’s awesome that no one did that,” said Bland. “They might make the school feel a little bit weird now, but at least they’re protecting our school.”
