Parents press for improved metal-detector screening as board considers reducing lockdown drills and funding school security upgrades

Multiple parents and community members used the Sept. 16 public-comment period to press the Binghamton City School District for stronger school security practices and to criticize how metal detectors are being used at the high school.

Aaron Thomas told the board he supports metal-detection screening at the high school but said his daughter walked through a detector with a phone, laptop and jewelry without triggering an alarm. “This metal detector is not being used properly,” he said, and asked for professional security staffing to operate screening equipment and for clearer ways for the public to contact the district outside board meetings.

Another commenter, Chantala Faber Vasquez, said the district should not reduce lockdown drills and expressed alarm about student safety, traffic and how rezoning could change walking patterns for students. “We need more training on the personnel and more security for our students,” she said, and asked for clarity about any boundary changes and whether shifts were being made to create rentable space.

Separately, the board reviewed a packet of resolutions from the New York State School Boards Association. The NYSSBA resolutions committee recommended adoption of a proposal (Resolution 8) that would reduce the number of required lockdown drills from four to two; the board’s delegate said she would vote in line with the committee recommendations unless members raised strong objections. Several board members expressed support for the committee’s recommendation; one board member specifically said he “really like[s] resolution 8.” The board did not itself change district policy on drills at the meeting but will register a delegate vote at the state association’s business meeting.

The superintendent told the board the district will present a smart-schools proposal at a future meeting that would fund safety-related upgrades, including communication improvements and an evaluation of metal-detection technology; she said the high-school detectors remain “state of the art” but that the technology and warranties are changing and warrant re-evaluation. The superintendent also asked the district to test additional detection machines and will report results to the board.

No policy change was adopted at the Sept. 16 meeting. The board heard public concerns and directed staff to evaluate metal-detection operations, equipment warranties and potential smart-schools-funded upgrades; the NYSSBA delegate will vote at the state association business meeting next month according to the board’s collective direction.