SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — Seminole County parents continue to press for solutions and transparency on school safety after a string of threats occurred in September, including a gun discovered on campus at Lake Brantley High School.
After a stressful week, parents began calling for an increase in weapons detection security, including metal detectors, to keep students safe.
While the Seminole County School Board said they have no plans to discuss adding metal detectors on school campuses, there is one safety measure in place that many parents may not know about.
According to a school district invoice, the district has been working with a company called ZeroEyes since 2021 to detect safety threats on school campuses.
ZeroEyes was founded by a group of former Navy Seals following the mass school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
ZeroEyes is used in 43 states, including dozens of school districts across Florida, and can detect more than 100 different firearms.
According to the company, “they use existing video cameras, coupled with artificial intelligence gun detection, to prevent threats rather than react to them.”
“The software is functioning when there is an assault rifle outside of an elementary school. We pick it up,” co-founder Sam Alaimo explained. “By the nature of what we are doing, I can not tell you how many mass shootings we have stopped, because they didn’t happen.”
Alaimo said his software picks up detections outside of schools every week. On average, depending on the size of the school district, ZeroEyes is monitoring 250-500 cameras per district.
According to ZeroEyes, increased public awareness about their AI software does not compromise the effectiveness of their security as a deterrent to potential shooters.
“When the potential shooter pulls a gun out of the bag, our algorithm says, ‘I think it’s a gun,’” Aliamo explained. “A still frame image pops up. The human in the loop verifies it is a gun and hits dispatch. The moment they hit dispatch that automatically syncs them to that local 911 dispatch on the phone with an operator.”
Spectrum News 13 has continuously reached out to the school board on current safety measures in place and any potential added measures. While none have agreed to an interview, the district’s safety and security division responded to email about a question on ZeroEyes: “How many potential threats have been stopped because of ZeroEyes software?”
The district replied in an email stating: “This school safety technology has played a role in helping us keep our schools safe. As a deterrent, we are unable to completely qualify how many potential threats have been stopped.”
ZeroEyes would not provide that information either, which means there could be more cases that parents, students and the community are unaware of.
For many Lake Brantley parents who dealt with the chaos on Sept. 11, as the school was placed on Code Yellow, not knowing how many guns may have been detected by ZeroEyes is an issue.
“You don’t want to get your kid to school, then worry about what’s going on,” Army veteran Tom Krieger said. “Trying to get information was very chaotic. I was getting information from my daughter, texting. She was in the school gym that someone had a gun at school and trying to figure out what was next and what was going on.”
Krieger, and other parents, have also reached out to the school board for more information on safety measures and the possible addition of metal detectors. However, members of the school board said metal detectors would cost on average about $19,000 each, and they have no plans to add any at this time.
While ZeroEyes is just a layer of security, and can only detect a firearm once the gun is in sight of a camera, Krieger said he wants to know what is working and what else can be done to protect students.
“I would like to see some statistical data that proves that it (ZeroEyes) does work, and it works,” Krieger said. “In the time and years Seminole County has had it, has it worked? How many people have they stopped? And as parents, we should know these things. If they are happening, why are they not being reported?”
Despite his efforts, Krieger said he is frustrated by the lack of information he gets on the topic of school safety from the school board.
“Lack of transparency,” he said. “All we, as parents, want is transparency and to know what’s going on.”
While Spectrum News 13 has already reached out to school board members, they declined to comment, citing a media policy they said prevented them from speaking. However, the policy says they can speak as long as they are not speaking directly on behalf of the school district.
School Board Chair Abby Sanchez has not responded to any calls or emails from Spectrum News 13 seeking comment on school safety in Seminole County.
