North Penn votes ahead new weapon scanner policy

North Penn’s officials have given more details about an incident when a student reportedly brought a gun into North Penn High School last week, as board members and residents continue to spar over security in the aftermath.

“There really is not a, ‘One size fits all,’ ‘No matter what, you do always do A,’ or ‘You always do B.’ There are always nuances and specifics to each individual case we may address,” said district coordinator of emergency management and safe schools Brandon Rhone. “So that is the reason why that took place in the way it did: because we had already accounted for the student we were looking for,” he said.

Rhone, speaking at a safe schools committee meeting on Oct. 27, was referring to questions surrounding the Oct. 21 incident in which district security staff received a tip from the Lansdale Police Department that a student was carrying a weapon inside North Penn High School. Security staff located that student and the weapon minutes later, spurring plenty of questions from parents and board members about the incident, security policies, use of the Evolv weapons detection scanners adopted last year at the school, and district communication of the incident.

During the meeting, Rhone, Superintendent Todd Bauer, and Towamencin police Chief Tim Troxel outlined how they responded on that morning, shared information with parents that afternoon, then gave an update with input from police the following morning before students and board members shared their thoughts on school security, and residents sounded off. Bauer began by summarizing the minute-by-minute breakdown he gave in a full board meeting last week, before Rhone described the decision-making process from security staff.

“In this particular case, the timing and the way in which it happened, the situation did not call for a hold or a lockdown, because we had the individual we were looking for,” said Rhone.

“At that point, there was no need to disrupt the rest of the building. A situation where we would maybe still do (a lockdown) is if we were looking for an additional person, and we had not immediately been able to access that person. Then maybe we would go from a hold, to restrict movement, so that we can go find that person. However, that was not the case,” he said. “The information that was received by me was we were looking for one particular individual, and that individual was accounted for by [high school security officer Bernie] Jones.”               

Safe schools committee chairman Jonathan Kassa asked how communication with Towamencin police factored into the response that morning, and Rhone said district security staff maintain “top notch” communication with the six local police departments that cover the district, and when the tip came in from Lansdale Police to district security, security staff and high school principal Kyle Hassler shared that info with Towamencin police immediately.

“It was very quick. I shard that information with Mr. Hassler and Mr. Jones, they immediately went out, because the bell had rung, and Mr. Jones then was able to see the student. The student absolutely complied, based on those relationships, and came to the security office,” Rhone said.

Investigation ongoing

Once that student was in custody, Bauer said, a message from Hassler was sent to over 9,500 email addresses for students, parents and staff, and a subsequent communication from Bauer with input from Troxel went out the following day.

“It’s not only an issue of what happened in the event that’s immediate … the firearm on school property. But we also have to be looking into things like: where did the student get this weapon? Who knew about that? When did they know about that?” Troxel said.               

“With it being a juvenile, we can’t just talk to them, there has to be a parent present, there has to be permission from an attorney. In a school environment, you actually take on that responsibility if the parents aren’t there, in loco parentis. But there always has to be those protections in place for the individual involved, because they do have due process rights,” he said.

As to complaints about the pace of communication, Troxel said he hears similar complaints when police don’t share info as quickly as unverified rumors flying online.

“We have to put it together in such a way that’s understandable; that’s clear, that’s concise, and that has the proper information. And that doesn’t happen in five minutes,” Troxel said.

“I watch social media, I see the comments, when people say ‘This happened here, and this didn’t come out ’til here. You have to handle the incident at that time, make sure that’s stabilized, then you have to gather that information, then put together your message. And all of that takes time,” he said.

Evolv-ing policy

Bauer addressed concerns regarding Evolv, the AI-based scanning system meant to detect weapons and/or suspicious objects on those who walk past the scanner. Staff had already started talks on using the Evolv scanners more often, prior to Oct. 14, and the board’s policy committee has since started similar talks.

“You can’t just search students because you want to. There has to be reasonable suspicion that they are breaking a school rule. Scanning, with a system like Evolv, is that a search, or not?” Bauer said

Initial board policy set forth three criteria for using Evolv: deploying it randomly across the district, at large scale events such as sports events or concerts, or when a concern or threat has been fielded, according to the superintendent, and an updated policy has been vetted and voted ahead by the board policy committee for the full board to consider.

“What that change is, is explicitly authorizing the daily arrival screening at whatever schools are identified by the superintendent, or the coordinator of emergency management and safe schools,” said solicitor Kyle Somers.

“The language that’s added in the policy says, ‘Due to a compelling concern for protection of students, staff and community members, and the immediate need to take precautionary measures,'” he said, before noting that language was written to comply with recent court rulings: “We believe the current circumstances would allow for daily arrival screening, whether it be at North Penn High School or any other school that’s identified by the superintendent.”

As for the scanners themselves, Rhone detailed how traditional metal detectors will identify any metal object, while Evolv is designed to use AI to identify “things that are consistent with a weapon, or parts of a weapon,” and learn from prior experience.

“Typically, students will have their water bottle or umbrella in their bookbag, they put the bookbag on their back, they walk through, and the system will identify it. And it will say, to the person monitoring the screen, ‘I need you to look at this area on this person’s back,’ and it will put a box around where it wants us to check,” he said.

In the week since the incident, students and staff have been told to remove those water bottles and umbrellas from bags as they pass the scanners, so the system can identify those objects and those students can pass without further search.

“That is speeding up our process. If the system detects something else, that it cannot be sure is not a concern, it will alert us, and say ‘Hey, check this,'” Rhone said. “The system gets better, and more accurate, every single time we use it.”

False positives?

Kassa asked for statistics on “false positives” flagged by the system, and Bauer said he’s worked at the scanners at the high school on four straight mornings after the incident, for over an hour each time, as students passed and the scanners tried to spot items.

“I have not seen one single false positive. If the definition of ‘false positive’ is, something that is not a weapon, OK. But was it something that I think the system should be concerned about? Yes, every single time,” Bauer said.

Student liaisons also added their thoughts on the system: Grace Jiao said she’s surveyed classmates about their thoughts, and “the general consensus was, people actually felt safer with it.” Some scans seemed to lag behind the student carrying the suspicious object, Jiao said: “It has a little bit of a delay in the speed in which it processes,” but “It is still better to go a little bit slower, just in case we’re not flagging the right people. Other than that, students tend to tell me it’s not that big of an inconvenience.”

Bauer answered that all images captured by the system are archived, and show the student with the suspicious area highlighted, and hit on one group in particular last week: “I guess one of our classes was doing a food drive, and a bunch of kids were coming in with canned goods, so this morning it was a bunch of canned goods that were pinging.”

Student liaison Thomas Judge said he’s seen students largely cooperating by removing anything suspicious, and students and security cooperating: “If there is a big deal, then the machine is doing its job. It’s meant to identify stuff that it’s not used to. I’ve heard multiple students say they feel safer, and it’s not that big of a holdup in the morning.”

Communications questions

Bauer and district Coordinator of Communications Media Bob Gillmer outlined how messages from the district were sent to just over 9,500 email addresses, largely to parents and families who are automatically registered for alerts via the district’s online platforms, and how they’ve helped troubleshoot those who accidentally unsubscribed.

“I would say, 95 percent of the time, (parents say) ‘I’m not getting messages,’ we can look in there and see that ‘Oh, you unsubscribed in September’,” Gillmer said. Anyone with specific questions about the emails or texts they receive from the district can contact Gillmer at [email protected].

“Check your promotions tab, check your social tab, check your junk and your spam. We can look pretty quickly to see if you received a message,” he said.

Does Evolv work?

Resident Jason Lanier questioned whether advertising statements from Evolv about the effectiveness of their systems were overstated, and whether staff were aware of reports that students in other states had managed to sneak weapons past Evolv scanners.

“If it’s making you feel good, and not actually doing what it’s supposed to be doing, why are we doing it?” he said

Bauer answered that staff and the safe schools committee discussed the system extensively before voting to adopt it last year, saying “I do believe we’ve done our homework,” and said he observed firsthand a success after the initial incident, when a Towamencin police officer tested the scanners.

“He walked through with his firearm, making sure (Evolv) detected it, and it sure did,” Bauer said.

North Penn’s school board next meets at 6 p.m. on Nov. 11 and the safe schools committee next meets at 5:45 p.m. on Nov. 24; for more information visit www.NPenn.org.

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