Highland Park shooting prompt metal detector install at school

Students at Highland Park High School arriving for the first day of school year Wednesday will pass through a weapons detection system before proceeding to their locker and classes.

Plans originally called for a random announcement and implementation of the new safety precaution at both Highland Park and Deerfield high schools but were moved up to Wednesday for Highland Park after a student at that school was shot and killed over the weekend.

Omar Morales-Diaz, 16, was shot early Sunday morning on Green Bay Road in Highland Park, police said. Another 16-year-old, Estiven Sarminento, was charged with murder in the shooting in what police said was an ongoing dispute. Sarminento, who is charged as an adult, is being held on $5 million bail.

Township High School District 113 Superintendent Bruce Law sent out an email to parents and students Monday, Aug. 14 informing them plans for the weapons detectors have changed out of an abundance of caution.

“That implementation was planned to be on a small scale and after we taught students about it and worked out with staff on how best to implement it. The timeline for implementation now begins on Wednesday,” Law wrote. “In addition, there will be a greater police presence at HPHS on Wednesday than we typically have on school days.”

According to a district representative, D113 will use Highland Park High School to test the program and work out any kinks before rolling it out to Deerfield High School.

“Until we learn more, the weapons detection system will not be at every door every day,” Law said in the news release./ “It will appear at different doors on different days at both schools so we can learn how to make arrival go more smoothly and assess the impact on school culture.”

While school security has been a controversial topic in the district for quite a while, discussions about the safety of children intensified last year when seven people were fatally shot and dozens injured during Highland Park’s 4th of July parade. Concerns grew greater after a student brought a gun into Highland Park High School in April.

According to Law’s email, students will need to present their ID’s when entering the school and be prepared to remove computers from their bags because the weapons detectors will identify them as a weapon.

It will not be announced in advance which doors will have the system in place.

The district would not confirm if the detectors would be visible from outside the building but did say they are mobile and can be utilized both in and outdoors.

“We know how important it is for school to look and feel normal, and we are working to make the beginning of school as joyful and exciting as it always is,” Law said in his email. “We also know that security is top of mind in our school community and becomes heightened after any incident involving guns.”

A weapons detection system is placed at one of the entrances to Highland Park High School on Aug. 15, 2023. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

In a survey paid for by the district and created by research firm Public Opinion Strategies, 55% of the nearly 1,300 respondents — which included parents, students and staff — said they were strongly or somewhat opposed to installing detectors “that require people to remove belts and empty their pockets” similar to airports such as O’Hare International Airport, compared to 45% who are strongly or slightly in favor.

About half of the student and staff respondents said adding detectors would “affect the atmosphere of the school” negatively. When asked about the use of weapons detection systems similar to those used at sports arenas in Chicago, 77% of respondents said they were either strongly or somewhat in favor.

The District 113 Board of Education narrowly approved a safety plan for the new term for Highland Park and Deerfield high schools during a meeting Aug. 8 in Highland Park. The plan is designed to enhance security while maintaining the existing school atmosphere.

“The experience of coming into school is going to be very different,” Law said. “If it’s causing students to experience stress, we need to pay attention to that.”

Before voting 3-2 with an abstention and an absence to OK the $80,000 weapons detection system, the board unanimously approved the balance of a more than $6.3 million overall safety plan, which includes aiding emotional needs and capital projects.

Law said the most important thing the district can do to keep students, teachers, administrators and staff safe is to maintain and improve the culture and climate at the two high schools it operates.

While schools know how to protect people in the buildings if there is a fire through long-existing protocols practiced throughout the year, Law said there are no such standards for gun violence.

“We know from experience it doesn’t always succeed,” Law said.

When preparing to open school a year ago in the wake of the Fourth of July shooting, Law said experts from the U.S. Department of Justice did not recommend metal detectors.

Ninth grade student Lily Dahms uses a microphone as she and others in favor of installing metal detectors, and other security measures at Highland Park schools, protest outside of the District 113 office on May 30, 2023. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

After a student walked into Highland Park High School with a gun on April 4 — it was not discharged and there were no injuries — some community members pushed for metal detectors. Law directed a thorough study to develop a safety plan in response to the growing concerns.

“The only difference is it happened here after we had a mass shooting,” Law said referring to the April incident. “Since there is no standard when it comes to gun violence, it’s a local community decision. In our community, we’ve been through this and it was horrendous.”

Law said close attention will be paid to the social-emotional impact the weapons detectors will have on students and school personnel. The climate and culture of the schools is good and must remain so.

“We don’t want to do anything to harm culture and climate,” Law said. “That’s the last thing we want to do.”

Board members voting on the weapons detection system all said their decisions took a lot of thought. Voting for it were Jody Elliott-Schrimmer, Greg Nieder and Jodi Shapira. Shapira said during the COVID-19 pandemic, the board always followed the experts’ advice.

“I’ll be honest with you all, this decision is harder than the ones we made during COVID,” Shapira said.

“During COVID, we made our decisions on what the experts said to us,” she added acknowledging security experts recommended otherwise on metal detectors.

Voting against the weapons detection system were Anne Neumann and Jaime Barraza. Neumann said the experts only suggested metal detectors in schools only when “community violence spills into the schools.”

District 113 board members conduct a meeting on May 30, 2023. In the first row is a group of advocates for the implementation of metal detectors and other security systems for schools in the district. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

Barraza, a Highland Park High School graduate, said he worries about the impact on the students.

“Random airport searches happen a little too randomly for me,” Barraza. “My goal is not to stop the guns with a weapons detection system but stop (it) from ever crossing the mind of the student that is even thinking about it.”

Realizing a 3-3 tie would defeat the weapons detection system, Board President Dan Struck abstained from the vote and said he is putting his trust in Law implementing the system cautiously and reporting its success or failure to him and his colleagues.

“This is a difficult vote. I am not at a place where I feel I can vote yes but I am not going to block what I think is a sincere and responsible position taken by Dr. Law,” Struck said. “I trust Dr. Law and I trust our staff but I’m going to abstain.”

Law made it clear while presenting the plan to the board if the metal detectors harm the schools’ climate and culture or do more harm than good, they will be revisited.

“If it starts to feel different in a way that is not good, we need to be able to come back to the board and say we’ve got a problem here,” Law said.

This story has been edited to clarify that only Highland Park High School used weapons detection systems at the beginning of the school year.

Steve Sadin is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.