Metal detectors to be installed after Erie school shooting hurt 1
(Pixabay)
ERIE, Pa. - Metal detectors will be installed at schools in the northwestern Pennsylvania district in which a student was injured in a shooting, school authorities said.
Erie's Public Schools announced last week that planned changes to safety and security protocols will include "the installation of fully functioning metal detectors." The Erie Times-News said the portable detectors are planned at the district's two high schools and three middle schools.
Also planned are audible alarms at exterior doors, other "updates to the intrusion system" and changes to interior doors, where necessary, to allow all teachers to lock classroom doors from the inside. Officials said the security camera system is being reviewed "to eliminate identified blind spots."
School officials said those changes will not be in place by the end of spring break on April 18, so "a period of virtual learning will be necessary." All security changes are to be in place by the time students return to school in person, officials said.
Multiple shots were fired just after 9:20 a.m. Tuesday in a hallway at Erie High School. An injured student taken to a hospital was listed as stable, officials said. Authorities said a suspect, also a student at the school, left after the shooting but later turned himself in to Erie police.
Mike Nolan, deputy chief of the Erie police department, said investigators were confident that it was what he called "an isolated targeted incident and not a random act of violence." He declined to discuss a possible motive.
Nolan said juvenile charges had already been filed. District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz indicated that the suspect would face only juvenile charges because the person’s age is younger than 15. Nolan said the 9mm weapon used hadn’t been recovered and the exact number of shots fired hadn’t yet been confirmed.
Classes were canceled at the high school for the rest of the week, with the annual spring break to be observed the following week.
The Erie Education Association, which represents school faculty and staff, said after the shooting that it had called for safety improvements for years and vowed not to "stand by one day more until the safety of our students and staff is properly addressed," WICU-TV reported. The organization had no immediate comment on the safety plan.
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