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Volusia County Schools pilot metal detectors; DeBary officials discuss hardening grant
Summary
Volusia County Schools and the sheriff's office described a pilot of metal‑detector screening at two high schools, plans to expand secondary‑school screening and a filed hardening grant for access control.
School safety leaders and sheriff's office representatives told the City of DeBary that pilot metal‑detector screening showed results and that the county is pursuing additional security measures.
"We did a pilot with Evolve. It's probably one of the best metal detector systems that they have," Captain Smith, director of safety and security for Volusia County Schools and commander of the youth services section for the sheriff's office, said while describing trials at Deltona High School and Spruce Creek High School.
During the pilot at Deltona High School, officials said staff recovered multiple vaping devices in a trash can and one large knife concealed on a student. School and sheriff's officials said the trials demonstrated the technology's deterrent effect and helped detect concealed items.
Smith said the district is working to expand screening so that every secondary‑school student (middle and high school) would pass through a metal detector, and the district filed a grant to support access control upgrades. The grant application includes provisions for remote access card readers that would allow doors to be opened electronically and disabled during an emergency.
The briefing also covered threat‑management documentation and training: school officials said they will migrate threat management to a compliance team to improve documentation and monitoring, and they plan training for open‑air response scenarios based on FBI active‑shooter incident reviews.
Context and next steps
Smith said coordination between the sheriff's crime center and school radio calls helped resolve an out‑of‑control parent fight at a campus within minutes, giving dispatchers camera images that let field units reduce response size when the scene was controlled.
School officials said they plan additional training for school resource officers and continued integration of school and sheriff office systems. No new policy or budget vote was recorded during the briefing.
