JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Starting this fall, Jacksonville\u2019s youngest students will begin walking through weapons detection systems before entering school. <\/p>\n
The Duval County School Board just approved a $2 million contract to expand technology that\u2019s already used in middle and high schools. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a bunch of safety patrols and they would keep the doors open like good morning, have a great day, so then you\u2019d just walk to class,\u201d said Everly Becker, an 11-year-old who just graduated from 5th grade. <\/p>\n
Chief of Duval County School Police Jackson Short says it\u2019s about giving all students the same level of protection. <\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Last school year, officials found firearms in the backpacks of three different elementary school students. <\/p>\n \u201cAll three of those times, there were legitimate firearms found in the backpack of elementary school students,\u201d Chief Short said. <\/p>\n The portable, walk-through systems can detect a wide range of threats, including knives, firearms and explosives. <\/p>\n But not everyone is on board. <\/p>\n Jean Francis with Moms Demand Action Jacksonville says machines won\u2019t fix the root problem. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is not the society we have to live in. We\u2019ve learned how to decrease drunk driving, fires, you name all of the issues, and we\u2019ve been able to resolve them,\u201d Francis said. <\/p>\n She says it\u2019s we could prevent tragedies with stronger firearm regulations and education. <\/p>\n \u201cI would say even Band-Aids are necessary. If you scrape your knee, you don\u2019t do nothing about it. Put a Band-Aid on it on it and take some other precautions. So, I would say that adding weapons technology to elementary schools is part of the solution. That doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s the only solution,\u201d Chief Short said. <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n This upcoming school year, 30 elementary schools will get the weapons detectors. Each school will be equipped with at least three machines to shore up entrances and exits. <\/p>\n \u201cI think that it keeps the kids and the teachers safe then it\u2019s a good idea. My uncle is a teacher and I want him to be safe, so I think it\u2019s a good idea,\u201d Becker said. <\/p>\n School officials say the regional superintendents picked which schools go first. <\/p>\n They\u2019ll let parents and staff know about any changes before the school bells ring.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Starting this fall, Jacksonville\u2019s youngest students will begin walking through weapons detection systems before entering…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":848481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[12189,5229,67809,10082,12187,292065,346774,14278,346775,3188,723,11561,346773,92588,7310,346776,425,346777,1393,101230,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-848480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-america","tag-bliss","tag-chief","tag-duval_county","tag-duval_county_school_police","tag-duval_k","tag-elementary","tag-everly_becker","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-jack","tag-jacks_bliss_zeman","tag-jackson_short","tag-jacksonville","tag-jean_francis","tag-local","tag-melissa_sackman","tag-short","tag-south_side_estates","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116703226044015470","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}