Photo: CBS 12
When kids return to school from their Presidents Day weekend in Palm Beach County, more of them will notice changes on campus.
Students at 15 high schools will now have to walk through metal detectors to get to class. Six of those schools are rolling them out for the first time:
William T. Dwyer High School
Boca Raton Community High School
Glades Central Community High School
Dr. Joaquin Garcia High School
Turning Points Academy
Indian Ridge School
It's something one principal says will take some getting used to on the first day.
"That is the day of education when the students usually realize what is and is not gonna set the metal detectors off...if their 3-ring binder is gonna work or it's not."
Boynton Beach High School's Moody Fuller says his school got the devices earlier this month and it's the second time he went through the rollout. Fuller was an assistant principal at John I. Leonard High when they were part of the pilot program at the beginning of the school year.
School District Police Chief Sarah Mooney says this is Phase 2.
"This is our chance to make sure we get everything in line to where Day 1 of next school year it'll be something that's already been established, the students will expect it, the staff knows how to run it and they've worked out all those little kinks."
She says the goal is to have metal detectors in use at all 33 public high schools in the district by the summer break.
Among the schools experiencing the rollout on Tuesday is Dwyer High in Palm Beach Gardens, where two guns have been seized from students in the past two months.
The following schools were already using metal detectors prior to Tuesday:
John I. Leonard Community High School
Palm Beach Gardens Community High School
Palm Beach Lakes Community High School
Seminole Ridge Community High School
Boynton Beach Community High School
Park Vista Community High School
Forest Hill Community High School
Palm Beach Central High School
Intensive Transition South