Chesterfield to add weapon detectors to its middle, high schools

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Chesterfield County Public Schools (CCPS) will implement weapon detectors in all middle and high schools across the county.

"In these days and times, knives could be anywhere you go," said Annette Mellott, a Carver Middle School mother.

That concern is part of what led Chesterfield County School Board members to unanimously approve the proposal during its meeting on Tuesday, May 13. It will bring 149 weapon detectors with electromagnetic technology into 28 CCPS middle and high schools.

"It's extremely important that our children feel safe and our staff feel safe," said Matoaca District board member Steven Paranto.

The vote follows an October 2024 incident at Meadowbrook High School, where a 17-year-old student was stabbed during a fight. Board members said safety upgrades had been in motion even before the stabbing, but the event underscored the need for immediate action.

"We conducted demonstrations of two separate systems," said Josh Davis, Chief Operations Officer for Chesterfield County Public Schools. "The system at Hopewell is by a company called Evolve. OpenGate is a product that's being used in Henrico."

In January, CCPS piloted both systems at Meadowbrook High and Robious Middle School over two days, while training staff in the afternoon.

"We would have lanes at bus entry points, parent drop-off points, and we would keep a lane available for later arriving students and visitors throughout the day," Davis said.

He said it will cost nearly $2.8 million to implement detectors in every middle and high school, adding that no one would be able to enter without being screened.

"The mega trailers would not be open for immediate entry directly off the bus or to the student," Davis said. "They would have to go through one of those lanes, and we have to perhaps put some barriers up in place to prevent infiltration or direct routing to these trailers."

He said that, during the trial run in January, schools did not see the alarm set off many times. Occasionally, a binder, water bottle or another metal item would sound the alarm.

"In a matter of two days, students figured out what they needed to pass to the side," Davis said. "They can set aside that laptop, or Stanley cup, or that three-ring binder. So, we saw it worked very well."

Chesterfield will join both Henrico and Richmond Public Schools in having this safety measure once it is implemented.

"To have a metal detector would be a good idea, just in case, to cut back on anything that may happen -- you know, plan ahead, don’t plan when it happens," Mellott said.

The Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to meet to allocate funding towards the project on May 28, with a goal for the system to be fully implemented during the 2025-26 school year.