Students To Be Randomly Screened For Weapons At Schools: District 113

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — At Tuesday night's Township High School District 113 board of education meeting, officials announced the expansion of its weapons detection systems at both Deerfield and Highland Park high schools, which will include random screenings of students. The district is also adding a third K9 trained to detect weapons on the campuses.

Currently, students at the schools who arrive after the first bell, as well as visitors, are screened through the District's weapons detection systems, or WDS. Moving forward, officials are planning to expand the WDS deploying units at all three main entrances in both school buildings. The units will be used at those entrances to randomly screen students for weapons.

According to the district, students will continue to scan in with their students IDs. During that scanning, a program will randomly generate a number to select which students will proceed to the WDS stations for screening. The randomization process selects students based on a percentage of the entire student body, with no limit to the number of times an individual student can be selected for screening. Officials said this means there is the possibility of being chosen for screening on consecutive days.

"The first step of this expanded deployment is staff training," District 113 administrators said in an email. "Those in the schools may see units or training taking place before the program fully launches. For security reasons, District 113 will not disclose specifics like the exact launch date or number of students who go through the WDS."

The district said students selected for screening will be given specific instructions at the time of screening. Students should expect to remove their Chromebook from their backpack and other metal objects from their bags and their person.

The district is also launching a new security advisory committee comprised of approximately 15 to 20 members that includes student, parent/caregiver, and staff stakeholder groups "who represent the diverse viewpoints across both schools."

As Patch reported last year, dogs trained to detect bombs and guns remain on campus at both Deerfield and Highland Park high schools. Jinx is the dog at DHS, while Sue is at HPHS. On Tuesday night, the district announced a third dog, Jera, is currently being trained as a back-up dog at DHS. Officials said the move "better ensures that we minimize the possibility of going a period of time without a K9 at one of our schools." The K9 teams have completed their acclimation period and have begun their full-fledged duties providing continuous, mobile surveillance at our schools.

RELATED: Dogs To Patrol Highland Park, Deerfield High Schools To Sniff Out Guns, Explosives