OCALA, FL (352today.com) – The Marion County Public School Board unanimously approved a line item for a weapon detection system for the school district, at their meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026,

The Open Gate Weapon Detections System is a $400,000 purchase, for 19 systems that will be used at the district’s local high schools, with each high school receiving two Open Gate Weapons Detection Systems, including one at Bridgeway Academy and two in the Safe Schools Department. These systems will be used to check individuals as they come onto the campus, whether it be a football game, after-hour events, graduations, or other public function, and they’ll serve as a deterrent for someone who might be thinking about bringing a weapon to school, said Dennis McFatten, Safe Schools executive director. The two systems at Safe Schools are backup systems or will be used at school events.

The school district recently had a situation where there were allegations of a student that was in possession of a gun on a campus at a middle school; in this particular scenario, the systems assigned to Safe Schools would’ve been taken over to that middle school and used to search the more than 1,000 kids on campus. Because the systems were not yet in place, that had to be done in a different way. The Open Gate Weapons Detection System would have made the process much easier, faster and more efficient, said McFatten.

Safety first 

Once the systems are purchased, Safe Schools will have to come back, and each individual school will have their own training, providing an opportunity for the MCPS board to come back to those schools and watch it being used, said McFatten.

“There’s an intensive training program written up in the agreement and I’m excited about that,” said Lori Conrad, MCPS vice chair.

It’s a $400,000 line item and it’s an example of how much more expensive it has become to provide safe education and safe environments for our students, said Nancy Thrower, MCPS board member, District 4.

“I wish that our Safe Schools allocation that we get, which we’re grateful for, obviously, covered every expense that we need, but that’s not the case, so we’re always going to do what’s best and safest for everyone that works for us and attends our schools,” said Thrower. “It definitely doesn’t come for free. I continue to be sad for where we are in society that this is even necessary. But until it becomes unnecessary, we’re going to do it. We’re going to continue to advocate for the funding that we need to do it right. The demonstration was straightforward. The tech is so good, in that respect I was glad to be there, but in every other respect, I really wasn’t, to be honest.”

Training and implementation 

There will be a lot of education and public relations wherein information will be distributed prior to the implementation of the process, where students will get the opportunity to visually see through a video or a one-page flyer, how it works. The goal is to make certain that every student understands the entire process on the very first day they are put into use. Safe Schools will look at the way the systems were implemented in other school districts and put together a strategic plan to make sure it limits the amount of time and impact on a student’s day, said McFatten.

“With the system, we’re able to set the sensitivity level, to pick up something as small as an ink pen or some type of small metal, but we realize that would require every student to be checked every single day,” said McFatten. “Once we get the sensitivity level to a comfortable level, to where we know there’s not weapons being passed onto the school campus, we’ll set it at that. But within the training and implementation process, we’ll send out information to each student and to their families, on what can and what can’t pass through the metal detector.”

However, laptops and big three ring binders will be picked up by the detection system, so as the student comes up to the detector with their backpack on, they’ll take their laptop out and hand it to a staff member, and then they’ll walk through the Open Gate Weapons Detection System, and then they’ll be given back their laptop when they get on the other side of the detection system, said McFatten.

This initial phase and rollout will be more time consuming, but as the process moves forward it should become more seamless and not disrupt the entire school day, said McFatten.

For graduations, where there are in excess of 5,000 people, there will be multiple systems set up, with different stations in place, and the district’s Safe School staff, law enforcement and school staff present to make this a seamless process, said McFatten.

“Oftentimes, when there’s an implementation of something new and different, it breaks routines,” said Rev. Eric Cummings, MCPS board, District 3. “People get anxious and impatient and create a lot of ruckus for something that’s going to benefit them. I come from that background, and I know McFatten does as well. It’s going to be a growing pain. But one of the things that I learned in law enforcement is that safety isn’t convenient, but it’s necessary.”