SEATTLE — Two Seattle public high schools will be installing weapons detectors in the coming months.
The Seattle School Board voted unanimously this week to support Superintendent Ben Shuldiner’s plan for a pilot project to put weapons detectors at school entryways.
Rainier Beach and Nathan Hale asked to be in the project.
The devices are already used for district football games.
“Everybody said, ‘hey, if there’s something you can do to make us safer, let’s at least try,’” said Shuldiner on Wednesday.
The plan was supported by student representatives on the school board.
Two Rainier Beach High School students were fatally shot at a nearby bus stop in January. A student was shot and killed just outside Garfield High School in 2024, and a student was fatally shot at Ingraham High School in 2022.
“It’s really unfortunate. It hurts a school community so much. And it just shouldn’t be happening,” said student representative Eliana Faunce at Wednesday’s meeting.
It’s a pain that Lonnisha Landry – who also supports the pilot program - understands. Her son, Xavier, would have graduated from Rainier Beach this year, but he was shot to death in Auburn two summers ago.
“I believe it is better to be proactive rather than reactive, and waiting can just cause more harm to our babies,” Landry said.
The detectors will come from CEIA USA.
“The general idea of the machine is to detect firearms and large knives. That’s what we’re after,” said the company’s national sales manager, Aaron Blevins.
He says each machine – from their OPENGATE system - costs $23,427 and is designed to be a more streamlined version of traditional metal detectors.
“If (students) carry Chromebooks, we’re going to need those to come out and be handed around the machine. But if they have those out and they have their backpacks on, they should be able to get into a relatively smooth process within a couple of days,” Blevins said.
The district aims to install them by December.
Staff and students will give the district feedback on how the detectors work, and the program could be expanded.