Baltimore City Public Schools is considering giving school safety an upgrade, with a new weapons detection system to replace traditional metal detectors.
Six schools piloted Evolv earlier this year, with mixed user reactions. The system scanned over 73 thousand times, with alerts being sent out for over 17.5 thousand instances.
Only 1% of those alerts – or 10 total cases – actually resulted in a weapon being found, said communications director André Riley.
Tricia Lawrence is the principal of the city’s largest high school, Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School, which enrolls nearly two thousand students.
“So any type of tool or method that can lead to efficiency, and a positive student experience is something that I’m willing to listen to, and really to try,” Lawrence said.
That’s why she led a pilot of the Evolv system in Mergenthaler, known as Mervo, from March until June of this year. Now, she says students are asking her to get the system back.
Read more (and listen) at WYPR.
