Bartholomew Consolidated School Board members are mulling over a policy about conducting student searches using handheld metal detectors.
Earlier this year, BCSC requested and received 46 of the handheld metal detector wands from the state based on a formula of one metal detector for every 250 students.
BCSC is proposing to add a new policy about the devices to the search and seizure section of the corporation’s guidelines. The proposed policy wording calls for any searches to be conducted by school corporation employees with minimal intrusion into a student’s privacy.
The school corporation worked with Seamus Boyce, a suburban Indianapolis attorney with Church Church Hittle + Antrim, on wording of the policy and proposed additions to administrative guidelines used to implement it, Superintendent Jim Roberts said. The discussion was part of a school board strategic planning session Friday at the BCSC administrative offices.
While the board will be asked to approve a policy regarding use of the handheld metal detectors, the school administration and cabinet, made up of school officials who lead individual departments, will decide on the administrative guidelines, Roberts said. School board members said they planned to provide some input in both areas.
The proposed administrative guidelines for handheld metal detectors would also fall into the search and seizure section, Roberts said. The proposal states BCSC officials may use the handheld metal detectors to detect firearms, knives and other weapons pursuant to Indiana law which prohibits the items from being brought to school.
The proposed guidelines stipulate that all students could be subject to screening with the handheld metal detectors.
Board President Jeff Caldwell asked if the detectors could be used at an event such as the combined BCSC prom at The Commons in downtown Columbus, and Roberts they could.
The guidelines would allow BCSC students to be screened by the metal detectors or with a Breathalyzer at any school event, Roberts said.
The proposal would require that a school administrator of the same gender as the student being searched be allowed to scan the student without making contact with the student’s body. Students would be asked to remove belt buckles, keys or other metal objects in their pockets prior to the search, and students would be offered a chance to explain what might be picked up by the metal detector during the search.
Roberts said he planned to talk with Boyce about the gender reference as there is a question of transgender students that may need to be included in the guidelines.
The proposal calls for at least one other school employee to be present, with the scope of the search focused on detecting a weapon, according to the document.
School resource officers may be present for the search but law enforcement will generally not be called in to conduct metal detector screenings, the guidelines state. Parents of the student will be notified of the use of the handheld metal detector in searching their child, the guidelines state.
There are still three options BCSC may use in implementing the guidelines, Roberts said, which were noted by Boyce when working on the policy and guidelines.
All students would be checked at school entrances with the handheld metal detectors, something Roberts said he believed neither the board nor school officials want to do.
Random, suspicion-less metal detector screenings, similar to having a drug-sniffing canine walk through a school on a random day checking lockers and classrooms. However, in this case, Roberts said the school corporation would have to be intentional in ensuring the screening was random.
Using the handheld metal detectors only based on suspicion or information received about an individual.
The proposed administrative guidelines state the screenings are to be used to deter the possession of weapons such as guns or knives and are not to be used for searching students suspected of other types of violations. If contraband such as tobacco or drugs is found during the screening, it will be confiscated and the student will be subject to school discipline, the guidelines state. Possession of a firearm, knife or other dangerous object shall subject students to arrest or disciplinary proceedings.
Several board members expressed concern about the possible appearance of the school corporation profiling certain individuals when using the random method, and asked that data be kept detailing the gender, race, school and other details to show that certain individuals or schools were not being targeted.
“If you are going to do anything random, you have to define it,” board member Kathy Dayhoff-Dwyer said. “It only takes one mistake for this to blow up in the media.”
Bill Jensen, BCSC’s director of secondary education, cautioned that just because the school corporation says it’s random, students will not perceive it as being random.
“You can open the door to complicit bias,” he said.
Board member Pat Bryant said that while serving five years with the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, he was drug-tested 15 times, adding he had a problem with the random idea.
School corporation attorney Chris Monroe told board members when BCSC instituted school resource officers at the two high schools, his daughter told him she felt less safe, perceiving that the need for the resource officers meant something was unsafe in her school surroundings. The presence of the handheld metal detectors could have the same effect, he said.
Earlier in the meeting, school board members learned that a student survey from last school year indicated as many as 20 percent of the BCSC student population has concerns about safety at school, a percentage that BCSC officials hope to reduce before the next survey is taken.
Caldwell, saying the board was giving Roberts a tough assignment, asked board members to write down their suggestions and concerns and send them to Roberts, who will bring the board the policy at an upcoming school board meeting.
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To learn more about Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. policies, visit bcsc.k12.in.us and click on the link for "About Us" to find school board district policies.
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