Hinsdale District 86 hears parent’s plea after gun found; superintendent outlines layered security and weapons-detection trials

Liz Smitha, a future Hinsdale South parent and candidate for the District 86 board, told trustees on Dec. 12 that a 2004 classroom shooting she lived through left a deep impact and urged immediate, public steps after a gun was recently discovered at a district school. “How do we prevent weapons from getting into our school buildings?” Smitha asked, and she urged the district to evaluate whether to add “full time weapons detection systems, canines, or new technologies” and to communicate a clearer security plan to the community.

Smith a urged parents to practice secure gun storage and cited national figures during her three-minute public comment: “In The United States, 54% of guns are not stored safely and 76 percent of school shooters acquired their firearm from the home of a parent or a close relative.” She also urged district outreach about safe storage and steps parents can take to reduce access to firearms in homes.

Superintendent Locke responded in the administration report that the district follows a “layered” approach to safety that pairs efforts to “instill a sense of belonging” and provide mental‑health resources with a layered physical security system developed with local law enforcement. “We have a detailed security apparatus that we keep the workings private so that anyone who might wanna harm our building or other people in our buildings can’t have access to that,” Locke said, adding that privacy laws prevent the district from discussing individual students.

Locke gave operational details about recent trials: “We have 19 security staff here in the district. Seventy‑four percent of them are armed,” he said, and described networked cameras, door alarms, visitor management, school resource officers and the BluePoint alert system. The superintendent said the district has been conducting daily weapons‑detection deployments at Hinsdale South and unannounced random deployments at Hinsdale Central, and that staff continue to iterate on placement and procedures to reduce lines and improve throughput.

Board members did not debate or vote on new security measures during the meeting. The board’s public comments policy and Illinois privacy laws were cited by administrators as constraining what specifics can be shared publicly about individual incidents. Smitha and the superintendent both urged community collaboration: Smitha by encouraging safer gun storage at home and Locke by asking the public to use tip lines and report concerns. The district said it will continue evaluating the detection deployments and security routines and update the board and community as appropriate.

The board’s next regular meeting is scheduled for the first week in January; no formal security policy changes were proposed or approved at the Dec. 12 meeting.