Houston ISD’s (HISD) superintendent Mike Miles said that all HISD high schools will have weapon detectors due to an increase of weapons on the campuses, HISD has a total of 49 high schools. During the Fall 2024 semester Bellaire High School had two incidents where firearms had to be confiscated within a 3 day period. Two months later 2 Lamar High School students were caught with guns, and one was charged as an adult. Bellaire and Lamar are two of the biggest high school’s in HISD, both ranked in the top 20 for Best HISD High Schools according to U.S. News & World Report. Both schools are home to over 3,000 students. The magnitude of these incidents has been frightening to students, parents, and staff.
The weapon detectors will not just be for students but for staff and visitors also. All laptops must be removed, and everyone will be directed to go through the weapon detectors with their belongings. HISD sent an email to parents saying, weapon detector implementation will start at Bellaire and Lamar because those campuses are where weapons were found. They will then begin to place the metal detectors in one new school per week, in hopes of having it in all the schools by May. HISD also confirmed that if something goes through the weapon detectors that needs to be looked at, the person and their belongings will be searched. However, HISD Police will only get involved if something dangerous is found.
The system is designed by Open Gate, and HISD said that it will be used to mostly find firearms, but large metal items like laptops can trigger it. In the event that, that happens that person will have to go through the metal detector again and if they are clear they will be allowed inside the building. The district is receiving mixed feelings about this new process from parents, some agree and others not so much. One parent told ABC 13, that she found it “very extreme” and “disruptive”, another told them he agreed with it because “it’s going to bring more safety for the kids and more safety for teachers.”
Miles sat down with KPRC 2 to explain the why behind this new implementation, and he said that the district already has a layered approach to safety and security and the weapon detectors are simply just one more layer. “We have had some guns in our schools, and we wanted to add another layer, so we have weapon detection systems going in” he said. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) overtook HISD in 2023, Miles was chosen to help the district get out of a long academic slump, within these 2 years he has made significant changes that have raised many questions about his character, this new implementation is one of them.
