West Branch installed metal detectors on February 19th to ensure the safety of students and staff. The detectors identify weapons or other prohibited items, allowing staff to immediately act if any item enters the school. West Branch plans to continue improving and fine-tuning its procedures to promote a safe and healthy learning environment for our school community. 

The metal detectors will help the school monitor and prevent potential threats more efficiently. The detectors are designed to provide a non-invasive way of ensuring that all individuals entering the school are safe and secure. While metal detectors are still new,  they have shown that they are highly beneficial to keep the school safer than it has ever been. The metal detectors are placed in front of the doors of the school and drop-off points. Visitors and students have to take out laptops, and any notebook or binder with extensive metal because that will set them off along with any metal cups and cans and give them to the staff standing off to the side so that you can walk through the metal detectors. High school assistant principal, Mr. Husted said, “I am proud of all West Branch students for handling this new procedure with grace and maturity. Our school is safer now than ever before.” 

My personal experience with the metal detectors is not going the greatest. Every morning when I walk through the metal detectors they go off so I have to put my bag on the table, show the staff the contents of my bag, and walk through the metal detectors again without my bag. Once that is clear they then scan my backpack and make sure nothing in my bag is setting the detector off. Once they clear my bag and myself, I am cleared to go to my class for the day. 

After setting the metal detector off every day since being installed,  we have figured out that the lock on my backpack is what’s setting off the detector every morning. For the first few times, I went through the metal detectors, we could not tell what was setting it off because I always take out my computer and notebooks before I enter the school, so it was a relief to finally figure out what was making the detector go off every morning when I walked through. Despite the inconvenience each morning, it’s reassuring to know how thorough the staff are with making sure students are not bringing weapons into school.