- The Allentown School Board approved adding metal detectors to its high schools
- The vote was 6-3
- The school district will also need to hire security staff as part of the beefed-up security plan
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The Allentown School Board voted 6-3 to approve metal detectors at the city's three high schools and at J. Birney Crum Stadium.
Administration officials presented data at a community safety forum earlier this week to demonstrate more security measures are needed and that students, parents and staff supported adding them.
"This is the first step in keeping our students and staff safe," Superintendent Carol Birks said. "And we continue to explore other ways."
Birks said the administration would also be looking at emotional safety and putting methods in place to help students with their social-emotional wellness.
"This is the first step in keeping our students and staff safe."ASD Superintendent Carol Birks
In a survey and focus groups, students said they wanted more mental health support, more school counselors and stronger relationships between staff and students.
Tiffany Polek, executive director of youth, family and community engagement, said the the district received 7,840 responses to its safety survey on the metal detectors and found a majority of students, parents and staff supported adding them.
School board members Phoebe Harris and LaTarsha Brown questioned the veracity of the data in a meeting that lasted more than five hours Thursday night. Brown said because the survey was on social media and information was gathered anonymously, she believed it was unreliable.
"I believe it is false data, it is fixed data," she said. "I believe it was fixed for the outcome. So basically be to support and be in favor of getting detectors."
Harris and Brown voted against the plan, along with school board member Lisa Conover.
Brown argued passionately against metal detectors, saying she felt "personal" about the issue.
"My child is in this district. So as a parent, this person, right," she said. "So trust me I want what is best for my kids."
Voting to approve it were school board President Audrey Mathison, Andrene Nowell-Brown, Jennifer Ortiz, Patrick Palmer, Evelyn Santana and Nancy Wilt.
Brown Nowell said she felt attacked for her position for buying the metal detectors after LaTarsha Brown brought up that Brown Nowell felt safe attending South Side High School in Brooklyn, New York, which had metal detectors and has since closed because of security issues and replaced by other schools.
"I'm just saying it was a measure that was put in place that I felt safe," Brown Nowell said. "My history, my story. Why is that being robbed from me? That's just my experience. That does not mean that I don't care about these kids."
The total cost of $557,176 includes 30 weapon detection systems under the brand name of CEIA. It will come with 30 base plates, 18 handheld metal detectors, 18 calibration devices and in-person training. It's currently unclear how many additional security personnel the school district may need to hire to monitor the new devices at each school.
"We all want the best for our students," Santana said. "And we obviously all want our students to be safe. My position is that we cannot sit here and do nothing."
The detectors could be in place within a few months.
A representative for the OpenGate weapons detectors said the system will allow for a rapid flow of students entering and exiting the schools. However, he said the metal in the Chromebooks requires the computers to be passed around them because the device will alert thinking it is a knife.
Allen High School has 46 doors and under the proposal would get 17 detectors. Dieruff High School is set to get five units, Building 21 would get six units and two units would be placed at J. Birney Crum Stadium.
Brandon Pasquale, the district's director of safety and security, said all school entrances are monitored in some way, even if there is not a metal detector at that door. There have been instances when students have let individuals into the schools who are not authorized to be there.
Numbers compiled from 2022-2023 incident reports said 547 weapons were found on students during the 2022-23 school year at eight elementary schools, four middle schools and the three high schools. The PowerPoint slide said there were 94 incidents at Trexler Middle School, 97 at Dieruff and 131 at Allen. It did not specify what the weapons were.
Another PowerPoint slide during this week's presentation said in the past school year, two guns and 73 knives were found, without saying at which schools they were found. However, a June 2023 school board agenda item that was pulled from the agenda and not acted upon presented the metal detectors currently under consideration and said two guns had been found at Dieruff and one at Allen.
A handful of members of the public spoke against purchasing the metal detectors. Allentown resident Ashleigh Strange said growing up in Alaska, she and her friends would take steps to make bear encounters rare. Her point, she said, was that if the district did not pair the technology with the emotional supports the students were asking for, this plan would fail.
"This district is already doing amazing things. You can continue to do those things, to put this money toward those programs without the addition of the physical weapon detectors," Strange said. "I think that it would be a good idea to look at it going forward to keep our options open. But for right now, the lions and tigers and bears that these kids are experiencing are not going to be stopped by physical weapon detectors."
