MANSFIELD, Texas — Artificial Intelligence technology is now at three entrances of Mansfield High School. Visitors, teachers and students must clear the new security measure before continuing into the school building every day.
There is a sign at each entrance that reads "stop" and contains instructions for students to remove items, like laptops and other electronics from their bookbags.
Getting through security at the school is a breeze for students like Makaria Walker. She's in her junior year and doesn't mind the extra security one bit.
"You just hand in your Chromebook gets passed around, you walk through," said Walker.
The change was implemented at the beginning of October. The New Artificial Intelligence Evolv is now on all seven high school campuses in the district. The weapons detection technology allows school students to enter school faster unlike other security procedures, like using handheld wands. Evolv has also made students feel safer and worry less.
"I'm really concerned for my safety," said Walker.
Mansfield ISD is paying $40,000 a year each for 20 Evolv detection units.
The district has trained multiple staff members to handle the units. As students pass Evolv, it detects weapons or weapon-like materials. If a student is flagged, that student is directed to a table with a school staff person who will check their backpack. Once the student is cleared, they are allowed to continue into the school.
"I know I don't have anything in my backpack. You can look through it. I don't care," Walker said. "So, If I get flagged, I get flagged. If I don't, then I can go onto class."
Mansfield ISD said the main entrance at Mansfield High is monitored during all business hours. The entrances at two other doors where students entered are monitored during peak hours.
"As a student, I feel that it makes us a lot safer here," Sophomore Ben Teage said. "I don't like to worry about safety, but this obviously doesn't have to make me worry about safety when we have these machines to help protect us from weapons and stuff like that."
Since 2018, there have been 177 school shootings resulting in injuries or deaths in the United States. There were 51 in 2022, and so far, this year, there have been 33, according to Education Week.
Investing in Evolv comes two years after Mansfield ISD had the shooting at Timberview High, which left three people injured by gunfire.
Britney Fortner serves as the Mansfield ISD director of security and safety. The district has had an officer on each school campus since 2017. A lot of research and homework went into adding artificial intelligence to high school campuses, especially with the Timberview incident in mind.
Fortner could not disclose the types of non-weapon like material their Evolv units are programmed to detect for security reasons. For now, only the high schools are equipped with Evolv.
"We have not discussed the further expansion, but it's definitely on the table," Fortner said. "We do have more students in our high schools. They are our largest population, and they also are more transient. So, they are coming and going from different places."
"We knew that keeping weapons out of our campuses was a priority, making sure that they don't even make it through the front door," she continued.
Although a costly investment, Evolv is not 100%, so Fortner explained she can't guarantee the district will never have an incident where a student gets a weapon inside the school. That's why she still strongly encourages students to share information about anyone who compromises the safety of their campuses. The district prides itself, according to Fortner, on creating a school atmosphere where students feel comfortable reporting suspicious activity or people to their teachers, parents or a school official.