DELAND, Fla. — Random searches for students could be coming to Volusia County schools.

What You Need To Know

  • School board members are meeting Tuesday to consider a policy allowing schools to randomly search students inside schools

  • Weapons have been confiscated on school campuses prompting school board members to find better security measures

  • The school would use portable metal detectors that can be set up easily at schools

Weapons have been confiscated on school campuses, prompting school board members to find better security measures in keeping students safe.

For 21 years, Elizabeth Albert has been working in the Volusia County school system, including 15 years as a teacher.

She believes better security, like the proposed school metal detectors are needed in all schools across the county.

“They are trying to find items that don’t belong on our campuses. So that would of course include weapons, but of course you don’t know what else they will find when kids walk through these machines,” said Albert, who serves currently as president of Volusia County Educators.

Volusia County officials will decide if schools can perform random searches, instead of having a set detection station before a student enters the school. 

Tuesday, the school board is voting to approve language and advertise the policy. They will then vote on if it will be implemented May 14.

School board member Carl Persis says schools would randomly be picked by a computer for a security check, and then set up inside the facility.

“They would walk through those during class change on their way to a class. Or when a class is over, they would walk through them when they exited,” said Persis.

However, Albert believes this type of security would only disrupt daily learning and not be an effective way of searching the students.

“Every minute we have for learning is precious. We can’t get it back,” said Albert.

She believes the policy language needs to be modified before approval.

“The way the language is written right now and the discussions before today’s board meeting haven’t provided the clarity and specificity we are looking for. Anytime you do something in a random matter, I worry about the effectiveness of it,” she said.

While some people believe security measures need to be installed at school entrances, board member Carl Persis says he doesn’t believe the county has enough resources to install such measures.

“We don’t have enough staff to put these up in front of every school and have kids go through. If it triggers an alarm, there must be a proper staff member there, said Persis.

Cost for any of the security measures has not yet been determined.