Alexandria City High School
Most people who responded to a recent Alexandria City Public Schools survey said that they want the Weapons Abatement Pilot Program to become permanent.
The equipment has sensors to identify and detect weapons such as guns, items with metallic weapon signatures and improvised explosive devices. Students, staff and all visitors to a school must pass through detectors on the way into Alexandria middle and high school buildings. The pilot program started in May 2023.
When the school system was determining whether to put weapons detection systems in the middle and high schools in Alexandria, most respondents to a survey supported it. Only about one-quarter of survey respondents supported the measure in elementary schools.
A survey taken in April of this year revealed support for the program to continue.
In April, 1,867 people responded to a survey about their support of and experience with the weapons program. Of the respondents, 870 were students (46.5% of respondents), 726 were family members (38.9%), 183 were staff members (9.8%) and 88 were community members (4.7%).
ACPS reported there has been a 71% reduction in weapons-related incidents at the secondary schools since implementation.
There is not much support at this time for implementing a similar weapons-screening program at elementary schools or K-8 schools at this time. According to ACPS staff, "data does not reflect the same frequency of incidents, calls for service or arrests/referrals at elementary schools or K-8 schools as the secondary schools."
The following are key results from the April survey from ACPS:
