Anne Arundel County Public Schools has proposed spending $2 million for “noninvasive weapons detection systems” in all high schools, something a number of the region’s school districts have done. But experts say the technology has flaws.

In his proposed budget, Superintendent Mark Bedell asked for $332,280 for a pilot program for noninvasive weapons detection systems at two schools, with the technology and schools yet to be determined. The Board of Education amended the budget to fund all 15 high schools, increasing the cost to install the devices to roughly $2 million.

The decision to fund the school budget falls to County Executive Steuart Pittman, who is creating a countywide budget recommendation for the County Council to vote on.

“I’m not an expert in these systems and how they work, but I do trust the superintendent and his staff when they tell us that this has real potential to save lives,” Pittman said Wednesday.

Pittman said his final budget will likely not fund the proposal for all 15 schools but the pilot program as proposed by Bedell.

“We obviously aren’t going to fully fund this. I mean, we can’t. They’ve asked for twice an increase,” Pittman said. “We have to put a proposal together, do all the math, see what we can do, and then it goes to the council.”

Odis Johnson Jr., executive director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Safe and Healthy Schools, studies school security measures and their impact on students. He says the devices have serious shortcomings.“Whether or not these technologies are effective, I would say, moreover, no,” Johnson said. “They might be trained to detect a gun, but when actually implemented within a school, they also have a lot of false positives. Most of these systems are going to have a false positive rate of over 80%.”

Johnson argues the systems can act as a deterrent for students who may bring a weapon to school without intending to cause harm, but they also can lull people into a false sense of security.

“It might desensitize the actual humans who are implementing or monitoring the system into believing that even a true positive really is a false positive,” he said. “It’s not going to stop a kid or person with a gun from entering a school building if they have malicious intent, with those AK-47s and AR-15s.”

Johnson researches the impact on students when schools “feel like prisons,” meaning schools use surveillance measures, including systems like the ones proposed. His research indicates that, all other factors controlled, fortifying schools is correlated with lower test scores and graduation rates.

“When you treat kids like suspects and these environments as unsafe by implementing these technologies, it ends up hurting kids’ achievement,” Johnson said.

Ultimately, Johnson argues the most effective solution to violence in schools is legislation at the state and federal levels, suggesting mandates for biometric locks on guns, closing loopholes, and funding crisis intervention programs. Schools should also increase spending on mental health resources, which Bedell’s proposed budget also does.

Typically, these systems consist of two pillars with electromagnetic sensors that people walk through. Artificial intelligence analyzes the magnetic signature of detected objects and alerts security if the system identifies a shape or density consistent with a weapon. The goal is to allow people to pass through seamlessly without needing to stop or empty their bags.

“Depending on the system and circumstance, there may be some isolated instances in which this would occur,” Bob Mosier, chief communications officer for Anne Arundel County Public Schools, said in a statement about students needing to stop.

The district cannot say what technology is being considered until funding is secured, Mosier said. The systems will not be at every entrance but will be portable, with varied locations.

Evolv and OpenGate are the most widely used systems by public schools, and some school systems in Maryland have begun using similar systems in recent years.

Harford County Public Schools, where there was a shooting at Joppatowne High School in September, recently purchased 11 OpenGate weapon detection systems. They plan to use the system “as needed” with no current plans to require students to pass through them upon entering schools, according to communications specialist Kyle Andersen.

Baltimore City Public Schools uses Evolv Technologies, a company currently facing legal challenges, including a class-action lawsuit and a Federal Trade Commission investigation, for reported high rates of false positives and false negatives. Each alert is noted and put in a category, but a representative for the school system did not respond to follow-up questions about what the categories are or the rate of false positives.

Baltimore County Public Schools uses a slightly different system to search for weapons. Omnilert employs security cameras and AI to detect when a gun is visible but not concealed, unlike systems that use electromagnetic sensors.

The district evaluates every alert but does not keep track of false positives, according to a statement from a spokesperson.

Anne Arundel County Public Schools said it cannot comment on specific concerns because it has not yet identified a vendor or taken a contract to the board for consideration.

“Any system we acquire is going to have positives and negatives, and we will examine the overall package of any product we consider,” Mosier said in a statement. “Regardless of the chosen vendor, piloting this initiative at a few schools first would help us determine the best system for our school system, staff, and students.”

Matt Hubbard contributed to this report.

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