Nashville to install concealed weapon detection system in all public high schools
A pilot of the system was installed at Antioch High School as students returned to campus six days after a 17-year-old student fatally shot 16-year-old student Josselin Corea Escalante on Jan. 22 and wounded another student in the school cafeteria. The shooter then fatally shot himself.
The decision to expand the system came at the end of roughly 90 minutes of board discussion and questions, along with comments from members of the public during the board's regular meeting Tuesday.
Josselin Corea Escalante: Nashville community mourns Antioch High School shooting victim
Evolv uses artificial intelligence to detect concealed weapons as people enter the school and is more specialized than a traditional metal detector, according to a presentation by MNPS Director Adrienne Battle. The system includes scanner panels similar to what patrons at a stadium or arena may pass through before an event. System Integrations, which owns Evolv, loaned a system to Antioch High for a monthlong pilot as students returned.
Battle praised the smoothness of the system's rollout at Antioch High, which is the district's largest school. She said Evolv adds to existing safety measures like secured entryways, cameras, school resource officers and other measures across the district.
"We know this isn't a perfect solution to every challenge we face when it comes to keeping our schools safe," Battle said. "It is meant to be a part of a multilayer approach to safety."
Board Member Cheryl Mayes, whose district includes Antioch High, said she saw firsthand how Evolv worked as students returned.
"The look on the faces of the students as they walked in the door that first day was a look of comfort more than anything else," Mayes said. "There was no anxiety."
The board's approval expands the district's existing contract with System Integrations. The initial cost is estimated at around $1.25 million annually. Based on how rollout at the district's high schools goes, MNPS may seek more funding to install Evolv in middle and elementary schools, Battle said.
On Tuesday, questions from board members revolved around the efficiency of the system for getting students and staff safely and quickly into schools, staffing needs to keep things running smoothly, future funding needed to maintain and expand the system and other logistical questions about how it all will work. Board member Berthena Nabaa-McKinney also implored the community to address the wider issue of gun violence that is spilling into schools.
"We have got to work together as a community to address this," Nabaa-McKinney said. "It is a crisis. It is a pandemic."
MNPS will begin the process of ordering and installing the systems into high schools in the weeks to come, with the goal of installing Evolv in two high schools per week. It was not immediately clear when the first installations would take place.
Evolv is not the first weapon detection system installed on MNPS campuses.
An AI-powered brandished weapon detection system known as Omnilert is installed on cameras across all MNPS campuses. However, the system failed to detect the shooter's gun during the Antioch High shooting — something a district spokesperson said was due to the location of the shooter and the weapon. However, the system did activate when police later entered the school with weapons drawn. The ordeal raised questions about the efficacy of the Omnilert system.
More: AI failed to detect Antioch school shooter's gun. Why experts say the million-dollar system is flawed
Evolv Technologies was also under scrutiny recently. It settled a case with the the Federal Trade Commission in November after the commission said the company made "misleading claims" that its AI screening system was more effective than traditional metal detectors. In its complaint, the FTC said the scanners failed in several cases to detect weapons in schools while flagging harmless personal items like binders and water bottles.
As part of the FTC settlement, the company was required to give some school districts the option to cancel contracts signed between April 2022 and June 2023. The company also discontinued using the marketing materials flagged in the case. None of the three districts in Middle Tennessee already using Evolv chose to cancel their contracts.
MNPS student board member Christine Tran also asked questions about Evolv's accuracy of weapon detection during the Tuesday meeting.
Jill Lemond, a representative from Evolv, said she did not have a "perfect number" available. Instead, she pointed to the 10% of people entering Antioch High over the last few weeks who required a secondary screening. She also spoke about how the system's AI is constantly "learning" and improving through around 6,000 panels installed at locations worldwide.
Reach children's reporter Rachel Wegner at RAwegner@tennessean.com or follow her on Bluesky @RachelAnnWegner.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville schools to install weapon detection system in high schools
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