All William Floyd schools to get metal detectors, officials say

The William Floyd district will equip entrances to its K-12 schools with metal detectors, a move school officials announced days after police charged a 14-year-old student with having a loaded gun in his school

Board members decided to install metal detectors at “designated entrances” to schools at an emergency board meeting Monday, which was not open to the public, according to a statement the district released Tuesday.

Officials did not say when the metal detectors will be installed, but that the district has begun the process of selecting a system and installation “will begin as soon as possible.”

It’s unclear how such a system will be implemented in William Floyd, one of Long Island’s largest school districts with 9,400 students, or how much it will cost. District spokesman James Montalto said he had no further information to share when Newsday asked the district for the estimated cost and timeline of the system’s installation.

“… this is a priority and we are working to get them up and running as soon as possible,” Montalto wrote in an email Tuesday. “More information will be available to share as we move forward.”

The South Shore District of Suffolk County has one middle school, two middle schools and five elementary schools. It also operates two alternative education programs: Floyd Academy for grades 10-12 and William Floyd Learning Center for elementary school children.

It’s not clear either how the new security measure would affect the start of a normal school day. School officials already warned high school and Floyd Academy students over the weekend to be prepared for longer wait times Monday morning as the high school would increase its random scanning of students with metal detector wands.

The heightened alarm came after a William Floyd High School student who was brought to an administrator’s office last Friday on suspicion of vaping was allegedly found to be in possession of a loaded handgun , authorities said last week.

The weapon was discovered when the student was searched with a metal detector wand, school officials said. The teenager has since been charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a weapon on school grounds, according to police.

The board’s next meeting is Tuesday, Oct. 29, in the library at William Floyd High School, where officials will give a safety presentation, the district said.

Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, he worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, DC