Greenville County School District displays weapons detection system

GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. (WYFF) - As thousands of Greenville County Schools students get ready to head back to the classroom, the district is implementing a new weapons detection system.

On Thursday, district officials gave a demonstration of the EVOLV security system, which will be ready to be used as soon as the school year begins.

The board of trustees approved funding for the district to buy three of these systems to be used throughout the district.

Security officials for the district say this system will be able to detect a wide range of weapons, including knives and guns.

They say students will also be able to walk through this system more quickly than a traditional metal detector.

“It allows you to move people through it very rapidly and it is highly effective at detecting weapons,” Superintendent Dr. Burke Royster said.

Royster says a big factor in choosing this system is that the system is portable, so it won’t stay in the same school or location.

“We think by being able to rapidly move it from place to place, by putting it into position unannounced, first thing in the morning when people enter a building, and periodically throughout the day and moving people through it randomly, that that element of surprise helps to prevent people from bringing a weapon in,” Royster said. “Bringing something in they shouldn’t have.”

Royster says he hopes this gives families another source of comfort as their children head back to school this year.

Royster says they plan to randomly set up the three systems at and around different schools and sporting events.

District officials say it will be used at middle schools and high schools right now.

“Routines breed complacency,” Travis Forrester, the district’s director of security and emergency preparedness, said. “Complacency is where security fails, so we feel like the randomization of deployment gives us another deterrent and is much more effective.”

Forrester says they may consider buying more of these systems down the road.

He says the district has hired deputies to be stationed at the systems with security technicians.