Security sensors approved for Osbourn High School in Manassas

High-tech security sensors are coming to Osbourn High School in Manassas.

The city’s School Board voted last week to award a four-year, $435,735.39 contract to New Jersey-based Alliance Technology Group for security sensors to be placed at the building’s main entrance and one side entrance.

Division administrators have said the move is proactive and not in response to any specific incidents. There was a September incident at the school in which word spread that a gun was on campus, causing some teachers and students to enter into a self-imposed lockdown. Ultimately, no gun was recovered and whether there was a gun involved remains unclear.

According to Alliance and the school system, the sensors are far from rudimentary metal detectors. Called “Evolv Express” security lanes, the system doesn’t require that pockets be emptied or bags be opened, though school system staff have said that students may need to remove their laptops. In a presentation to the board, an Alliance representative described the “touchless” system in which students don’t need to slow down or pause while going through the security lanes.

With over 2,300 students enrolled – the vast majority of whom enter the building within a roughly 15-minute period – speed factored into the decision-making process, school system Finance and Operations Director Andy Hawkins told the School Board at a previous board meeting.

“This is not a metal detector. We’re trying to move as many students through, we have to get over 2,000 kids in 15 minutes … This is the least intrusive thing that we could move these students in,” Hawkins told the School Board.

If the sensors get a hit, a student would go to a table where school staff would check for the reason. The sensitivity of the sensors can be adjusted, according to Alliance, which says the system uses artificial intelligence and “comprehensive venue analytics.”

The vote to approve the contract was 6-1, with only School Board Member Robyn Williams voting against the resolution. Superintendent Kevin Newman said the aim is for the school system to try the sensors out at Osbourn “to see how it goes” before possibly bringing them into Metz Middle School and the division’s intermediate schools.

Two teachers spoke during the meeting’s public comment period last week, with one in favor of the sensors and another against.

“An airport and an historical site and a museum, they’re not schools. The places here are predicated on the concern of the unknown, that these transient adults could be anyone with any plans and we don’t know any of it. But that’s not a school,” one teacher said. “If anything, we should know every kid, every child who walks through that door. We’re not afraid of these people coming and going, we’re seeing the same kids every day. If anything, our solution should be getting to know them even better, to prevent and unravel these reasons why they might get angry in the first place. We can do that with them, they’re children.”

But board members said the sensors weren’t meant to indicate that Osbourn was dangerous or as “an indictment” of the students. Instead, they would be an additional layer of preventative security.

“I don’t think there’s any one thing that will solve all problems,” said School Board member Lisa Stevens. “I think we need layers in place, and it requires a team effort with everyone on board, all hands on deck.”