Manatee School District to Expand Daily Weapon Detection Screenings to Middle School Campuses

MANATEE COUNTY—Manatee School Board members unanimously approved a request by district leaders to create a new specialized position that officials said would help expand daily weapons screenings to middle school campuses.

Currently, only high school campuses are screened daily, while middle school campuses are screened randomly. Beginning in August, both will begin utilizing daily screening protocols. 

The new Guardian Weapons Detection Systems Technician position will be filled by a fully certified school guardian who will receive specialty training for the high-tech screening equipment utilized by the district.

The  security scanner system is made by ‘Evolv.’ Daily screenings with the Evolv equipment at all district high school campuses began at the start of the ‘24-’25 school year.

In January, school board members approved the expansion of the daily screenings to include middle schools.

Speaking to board members during a Tuesday meeting, Superintendent Dr. Jason Wysong said that the new position was needed to implement the board’s approval of the expanded daily screenings to the additional campuses.

Wysong said that the district would be “scaling up” both equipment and personnel to meet the directive.

“This position will include specialty training for one of the school guardians to do more in-depth and troubleshooting and maintenance on the equipment,” Wysong said. “This position allows us to do that.”

Because the Guardian Weapons Detection Systems Technician will also be a fully certified school guardian, when not working directly with the equipment, the personnel will also be able to “float” throughout campus, performing security duties as other guardians do.

According to the district’s website, the Evolv screening system is not the same as traditional metal detectors. Unlike metal detectors, Evolv uses advanced sensor technology and AI software to screen persons as they walk through at a “natural pace.”

The system is also portable and can be moved to different campus locations as needed. This allows officials to screen campus special events or even select locations, such as at the entrance of a school’s stadium or auditorium.

“The Evolv screening detector is the same system that has scanned more than 350 million people in the U.S. (second only to the Transportation Security Administration/TSA),” reads the district website. “The technology is used at locations throughout the U.S. including hospitals and schools, theme parks, stadiums, houses of worship, and workplaces.”

Manatee District Schools PIO Michael Barber told TBT by phone that the machines have proven to be reliable and a worthwhile investment.

“They are reliable in identifying things that might be suspect,” Barber explained. “As a general rule, when the machines spot something, they don’t alert on everything like a typical metal detector would, these security scanners are specifically designed for weapons detection.”

He added that due to their technical efficiency, the Evolv equipment is less invasive than traditional metal detectors and keeps foot traffic flowing.

Expanding the machine usage to middle school campuses means that the district will add nine more traditional middle school sites to its current seven high school sites for daily screenings.

Barber said the additional school sites will expand the district’s leased machine total from its current 20 machines to double that next year, to 40 total.

The district leases the machines from Evolv and the total cost for use of 40 machines across all middle and high school campuses will be $600,000.

“Everyone involved in the implementation and use of the devices have found the machines to be a good investment,” Barber said.