Hinsdale South To Keep Weapons Screening

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale South High School will continue weapons screening for the "foreseeable future," an official announced Wednesday.

On Friday, the school began using its weapons detection system every day. This was after a gun was found a day earlier on a 16-year-old boy from Willowbrook in the dean's office, authorities said.

The district's original plan was to use the system at least through the Thanksgiving break.

At a public meeting Monday, residents demanded the school continue using the equipment for the long run. At the time, Lach said he had heard different sides of the issue, including the view that the system gave the appearance of a "police state."

"I know last week’s events at Hinsdale South were unsettling; I also know there are many questions you have about specifics that we’re unable to answer for legal and privacy reasons, which compounds anxiety," Superintendent Michael Lach said in a mass email to the district's families Wednesday.

Lach said the district would evaluate the system's effectiveness while looking at other solutions.

He said the district's safety measures have already included:

• Armed security personnel
• Centralized command centers equipped with comprehensive camera systems
• Access control sensors
• A "wide variety of additional protective measures that we cannot disclose publicly, but are critical to our efforts to safeguard our schools"

The district will provide more updates on its security at the Dec. 12 school board meeting, Lach said.