VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Students at Atlantic High School in Port Orange will now walk through an AI weapon detection system called Evolv before going to class. Volusia County Schools launched the new pilot program on Tuesday, which will continue through the end of the school year. School officials said the technology can scan up to 2,000 people per hour.
Eyewitness News was there for day one of the new program. The process was similar to airport or amusement park security. Students placed their bags on a conveyor belt and then walked through metal detectors. School officials said the goal is for this to become second nature to students.
“Give it a week. They’re going to understand that they just need to drop their bags and walkthrough. Kids are a little timid, they’re emptying their pockets, and they don’t need to do that,” said Executive Director of Graduate Assurance and Student Services, Mike Micalef
Currently, the district uses moving metal detectors to randomly screen middle and high school students. If the district decides to implement this new technology permanently, it will replace that program at high schools. However, the moving metal detectors will still go to middle schools.
During the 2022-2023 school year, more than 80 weapons were found on Volusia County campuses. Since then, the sheriff’s office has been working with the district on solutions.
“For us if the weapon gets on campus we lost. There is no doubt, everybody knows that and that’s the objective here is to prevent that weapon from getting on campus,” said Sheriff Mike Chitwood.
No weapons were picked up on the first day of the program but we did get to see an example of what it would look like if someone tried to sneak one in. A red box pops up on the student’s body or their bag and the image freezes on an iPad screen. At that point, the student or their belongings would be searched.
“Umbrellas actually often set it off because the inside of umbrellas look like a barrel. So, it’s taking in multiple factors. Density of the metal itself and if it looks like a weapon,” said Head of School Safety and Security, Captain Todd Smith.
The pilot program was launched at Atlantic because it is the smallest high school in the district.
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