Orange County Public Schools tested a walk-through weapons detection system last school year but decided against installing the devices at all its high schools because operating them was too expensive.
The recent arrests of students at three Central Florida high schools — Boone, Lake Brantley and Ocoee — for bringing guns or gun parts onto their campuses, along with the arrest of students in Apopka and Sanford for posting online threats, has some parents pushing for a reconsideration.
In Seminole County, an online petition urging metal detectors at Lake Brantley has gained 2,675 signatures as of Friday, prompted by the arrest of a student last week who brought an unloaded handgun onto campus.
“We’re talking about people’s lives here. No cost should ever outweigh saving lives, no one should ever have to say this could have been prevented if we had metal detectors,” said Diane Lorber, a parent of Boone alumni and former chair of Boone’s school advisory council, who wants to see the system installed. “Think how that would weigh on administrators that canceled the program due to budget. Let the people at the top take a budget cut if that’s what it takes.”