INDIANAPOLIS — Lawrence Township schools will make a move to further protect students and staff within their schools.
All secondary schools will be transitioning to daily metal detection upon entry into the building.
The investment amounts to more than a quarter million dollars.
"It makes feel confident coming to school," Lawrence North freshman Erika Acocar said.
The district calls the move a proactive approach to strengthen existing safety protocols.
"It's probably one of the most accurate on the market right now," Lawrence Township director of safety Jim Parish said.
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Parish says before the new detectors they were randomly screening students, and scanned an average of 350 students a day.
Now they're are to screen more than 24,00 in less than 20 minutes.
"I feel a little more secure cause a lot of times people carry that stuff in their bags, so it's a lot easier to find," Lawrence North Sophomore Lillian Semere said.
The district says they are hopeful the new safety technology will keep weapons out of their schools, plus students said it has put their minds at ease.
"Instead of focusing on my work, I would be thinking about other things like my protection and safety but I feel like now since we had this I don't have to worry about my protection as much," Lawrence North freshman Rihanna Beltre said.
Anyone coming into the middle or high schools, and sporting events, has to walk through them.
The machines are calibrated in a way that they won't set off smaller metal items like keys or phones.
An alarm will sound when heavier metal items come through, like laptops and weapons.
"Parents send their kids out the door every day an we never have 100% of the worry taken away, but what we've seen in the last 20 years is really a concern of when I send my child to school are they going to be safe," Lawrence North parent Pam Dechert said.
21 units have been placed at middle and high schools in the district, a $350K investment.
The move follows the arrest of two teenage boys, aged 14 and 15, following a shooting outside of the Lawrence Central vs. Lawrence North basketball game.
"I will see people post on social media like oh new gun, and then there was the incident at the basketball game. It's here, it's happening don't try to think like oh we don't need this because we do it's important for our safety," Lawrence North Sophomore Brodin Dechert said.
The district says they are looking into expanding the weapon detectors to elementary schools in the future.
