{"id":233241,"date":"2026-04-15T20:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/233241\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T20:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:41:08","slug":"schools-weapon-detection-systems-removed-after-10-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/233241\/","title":{"rendered":"Schools\u2019 weapon detection systems removed after 10 days"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A pilot program at two Pinellas County high schools designed to detect weapons <a href=\"https:\/\/stpetecatalyst.com\/weapon-detection-systems-installed-two-pinellas-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">began April 7<\/a>. At the time, administrators said the pass-through detectors would be in place through May 29.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, they\u2019ll be removed from school entrances this Friday, April 17.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a district, we\u2019ve learned quite a bit from the implementation of this pilot,\u201d Superintendent Kevin Hendrick said during Tuesday\u2019s school board meeting, \u201cin terms of logistical support and planning for successful deployment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The detectors are coming out \u201cto be sure there\u2019s no impacts as our high schools begin international, and then state testing, soon thereafter,\u201d Hendrick said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollowing the \u2018school-based pilot,\u2019\u201d he continued, \u201cthe district safety and security team will pilot at some district events, and we\u2019ll provide notification when we do so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He did not elaborate on the reason the on-campus part of the program was ended after 10 days.<\/p>\n<p>Reportedly, the first few days of implementation at Palm Habor University High saw long lines and false alarms at the detectors.<\/p>\n<p>School board member Laura Hine said during Tuesday\u2019s meeting she had visited the Gibbs High campus that same morning, and discussed the system with staff and students.<\/p>\n<p>Neither Hendrick nor Sean Jowell, PCS Director of Safety and Security, immediately returned calls requesting comment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe last thing I want, the last thing our team wants, the superintendent of the board, is to make it feel like a prison,\u201d Jowell said April 6, as the pilot program was being launched. \u201cWe don\u2019t want that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pilot program at two Pinellas County high schools designed to detect weapons began April 7. At the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-233241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}