Broward County Public Schools are making changes to help fight gun violence and social media threats across South Florida schools.
Last year, the county saw several instances of weapons and threats on school campuses.
On December 17th, a code red took place at South Plantation High School after the threat of a gun on campus.
That same day, a 16-year-old was found with a loaded gun at Miramar High School. That student was arrested.
During Wednesday's meeting, school board members expressed support for having hand-held metal detectors at all district schools.
“The fact we’re doing metal detection, hands on metal detection, now in 2022 that’s great,” said Broward County School Board Member Lori Alhadeff. “Personally, I feel that we should’ve implemented after the tragedy.”
That tragedy was the February 14th, 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that killed 17 people and injured 17 others.
At least one metal detector wand will be added at all schools in the county. The wands are already being purchased. The checks will be done randomly.
The school board will formally vote to approve the wands on January 11th.
The board said this needs to happen to protect students and teachers on campuses across Broward County.