New metal detectors cause long lines outside Broward high schools on first day

Broward public schools apologized for the chaos on the first day of school caused by the district’s roll out of new metal detectors that created delays as hundreds of high school students were left standing in lines waiting to enter schools.

“We apologize to Broward high school students and families for the long lines and wait times at the metal detectors this morning,” Superintendent Howard Hepburn wrote on X on Monday. Last week the school district hosted a livestream on X where Hepburn warned students and parents to prepare to remove metal objects from backpacks, including items such as sports equipment, eyeglass cases and three-ring binders.

But on Monday parents were greeted to lines that spilled onto the sidewalk outside of schools like Fort Lauderdale High, Western High School in Davie and Hollywood Hills High.

The metal detectors are walk-through machines and apparently are incredibly sensitive to all metal. Schools had two to four metal detectors per school depending on the number of entrances, said the superintendent.

Lukas Paez, 17, a senior at Western High in Davie, stood in line for about 45 minutes before hearing that they were just letting kids inside. He heard that belt buckles and the metal rings and spirals from notebooks “set off alarms like crazy.”

Madeline Reyes, 50, Lukas’ mother said the line to drop off students barely moved. She said she could only see one metal detector being used from her car. Her son said there was another by the door near the student parking lot. Western High School has about 3,600 students.

Lukas texted her at 8:30 a.m. to say he was inside the school, nearly an hour after he was supposed to be in his first class.

Reyes said the school district sent an email on Saturday saying tardiness would not be counted for the first two weeks of school as high schools transition into using metal detectors.

“Having one [metal detector] on each entrance is ridiculous,” she said. “The students will have to be at school by 6, 6:30 in the morning in order to be able to go through the whole process.”

After dismissal from Fort Lauderdale High, junior Nola Lordeus, 16, told the Herald she felt like she was standing outside for three hours this morning.

“No, you were not,” said her friend.

“But it felt like that,” Lordeus joked.

“This morning it was literally a mess,” she said. “I feel like they should cancel the metal detectors.”

Adding to the frustration many parents felt was the new cellphone policy at Broward district schools. Students are required to keep their phones turned off or on airplane mode during school hours. Noemi Rada, the mother of a sophomore at Fort Lauderdale High, told the Herald that her daughter texted her grandmother around 8 a.m. saying she was still in line outside of school but because of the district’s cellphone policy she wasn’t able to confirm when her daughter got into the school safely.

‘We recognize these issues’

At a press conference later Monday, Hepburn said he spoke to nearby districts who have already implemented metal detectors in schools and they said these kinds delays are normal.

“One of the things that we found out is that many of our students are still holding on to things in their backpacks that they shouldn’t have,” said Hepburn. “Your electronic devices, large ring binders, umbrellas those things should be taken out and that’ll help get through the line.”

He said he even spoke to some students and one young lady said her eyelash case set off the metal detector.

Landyn Spellberg, the student advisor to the school board, said he went through metal detectors this morning within 10 minutes because he knew exactly which items needed to be removed.

The board said students and parents should expect the process to improve as they continue to add more metal detectors and personnel to schools.

At the press conference Monday afternoon school board chair Lori Alhadeff reiterated the district’s understanding of the frustrations parents and students faced in the morning. “We know that the first day was a challenge, particularly with the new metal detectors at our high school. We recognize these issues, and want to assure you that steps are being taken to address them.”

Metal detectors were installed in 38 sites, including 28 traditional high schools, three combination schools, and seven centers this year as a safety measure. The school board had originally planned to try the new system out at 10 public high schools but then back in April decided to install them in all high schools.

“I don’t really want to wait. I want to do all of our high schools now,” said Alhadeff at the April meeting. Alhadeff’s daughter Alyssa was killed during the 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland.

The walk-through detectors that the school district uses are battery-operated and use artificial intelligence to detect weapons. Each detector, which includes two towers and a floor mount, costs about $16,480.

Since the 2022-2023 school year, Broward County Public Schools has had 220 weapons-related incidents and 3.6% of those incidents involved firearms, according to the district. Metal detectors are the most recent security measure the district has pursued since it decided against requiring clear bookbags for this school year.

This story was originally published August 12, 2024 at 12:39 PM.