Weapon Detectors in Virginia Schools: Why Now and How Do They Work?

RICHMOND, Va. — Chesterfield and Fairfax County Public Schools are two of the latest school districts to introduce weapon detectors to their middle and high school buildings..

This follows a trend of other Virginia school districts introducing weapon detectors on campuses in the past few years.

Both of these districts have installed OpenGate scanners by CEIA USA. The scanners are designed to allow traffic to move faster as they detect metal that is likely to be a weapon and not what they call “nuisance items,” such as laptops or binders that can be picked up by the scanner.

Kyle McDaniel, a Fairfax County Public Schools Board member, said weapon detectors bring an extra layer of security that doesn’t impede students, parents or faculty. The school board voted to install the same technology at its meetings.

“It’s unfortunately a sign of the times,” McDaniel said.

Each detector requires three people for operation, according to McDaniel. If there are any technical problems or a scanner becomes broken, CEIA provides technical support.

“With the state sitting on such a massive surplus of cash, they could invest in some of these one-time costs across the commonwealth to increase security screenings in schools,” McDaniel said.

Fairfax County will add weapon detectors to its middle schools starting later this fall, according to McDaniel.

The cost for Chesterfield to install the weapon detectors in middle and high schools was close to $2.8 million, according to Leigh Ann McKelway, a CCPS spokesperson.

“Weapons detection systems were added to bring an additional layer of security to every Chesterfield County middle school and high school,” stated McKelway. “The rollout went well, and the scanners are now part of the regular school routine.”

CCPS has hired security officers at all of its elementary schools.

Staff or security personnel will pull the student aside when an item is detected for a second screening, according to FCPS. The student will remove anything from their bag that may have triggered the scanner, or the staff will use a handheld detection device.

“It takes up way too much time and makes you late to your classes,” a student at Chesterfield County Public Schools said. “Simple ring binders and notebooks will set it off.”

CCPS and FCPS do not plan to add detectors to elementary schools at this time. Nearly one-third of school districts in Virginia deploy weapon detectors, according to a previous report by WTVR-CBS 6 in Richmond.

The number of school shootings in the U.S. rose each year after 2020, but dipped last year, according to the K-12 school shooting database. The organization counts a school shooting as anytime a firearm is brandished with intent or when a bullet hits school property, regardless of time of day or reason.

There were 81 school shooting deaths in 2024, according to the database.

There have been 356 mass shootings in the U.S. this year, as of Sept. 10, according to the Mass Shooting Tracker. It defines a mass shooting as “a single outburst of violence in which four or more people are shot.”

Forty-seven of those were shootings in K-12 schools or universities.

Philip Van Cleave, president of the pro-gun Virginia Citizens Defense League, believes that armed school resource officers are a better security option than weapon detectors.

“The bad guy knows if he comes in and there’s no resource officer, school’s his,” Van Cleave said. “If you’ve got what we call a ‘gun-free zone,’ then you should at least have security there.”

Van Cleave refers to weapon detectors as “security theater,” a term security experts use to describe enacted measures that are more performative than effective.

By Carson Nealy
VCU Capital News Service

Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Communication. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.