DETROIT (WWJ) -- The Detroit Public Schools Community District is taking a fresh look at security measures, following the deadly mass shooting at a Texas elementary school and a weapons threat the same day at high school in Detroit.
WWJ's Greg Bowman reports some DPSCD parents have been asking administrators to install metal detectors in more Detroit schools in an effort to keep guns out.
Superintendent Nikolai Vitti spoke at an academic committee meeting about some options on the table.
"Do we need to put a metal detector (at the door of each school)? Do we have to increase searches, random searches? You know, do we have to increase wanding, instead of a metal detector?"
"Twenty years of doing this — always at the toughest schools, so anyone who tells me different, check my resume — wanding has worked more than metal detectors."
In fact, Vitti said he recommends against adding metal detectors in Detroit schools that don't currently have them.
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"I've said this a hundreds times, I'll say it again: the best metal detector is a relationship with children," Vitti said, during an academic committee meeting.
"They will tell you when there is a gun in the school, or there's a knife. No metal detector, no amount of wanding, no number of police officers if the kids know; and the kids will speak up."
Vitti said installing more metal detectors could increase anxiety among students, and it wouldn't necessarily prevent a person from smuggling in a weapon.
Meanwhile, Vitti said some schools in the district do have metal detectors, which are on the older side. He said outdated metal detectors currently installed will be updated by June to ensure that they are fully functional.
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