Weapons detection system flags gun at awards ceremony

By Heidi Kirk

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    North Carolina (WRAL) — Chanda Battle wears many hats.

She’s a parent of a teenager and also the Director of Student Support Services for Edgecombe County Schools.

About a year ago, she worked with the Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office to implement the Evolv Express Weapons Detection System at every school in the district.

“We’d like to think of ourselves as innovators,” Battle said.

The weapons detector is sophisticated. It uses a combination of sensors, such as X-rays, thermal imaging, which detects differences in body heat, and even millimeter wave technology. Your body gives off those waves so the scanner can detect items that do not.

‘We jumped out there when people weren’t ready to spend that money on these systems. We thought that kiddos were worth it,” Battle said.

On Wednesday, the system detected a handgun inside a purse at Coker Wimberly Elementary School as the women headed in for an award ceremony.

Capt. Joseph Cofield said he considers that a success.

“Any time we get a weapon off campus, it’s a win-win,” Cofield said.

As the district approaches a weekend of end-of-year activities and graduation celebrations, it is preparing for every guest to go through the Evolv system. This means moving the systems from the individual schools to the facilities hosting graduation.

“Safety is the message we are sending, and we are okay with that,” Battle said.

WRAL News contacted several other schools in our area to see how they handle security at graduation. We found they all had different ways of increasing security, from adding SROs to using metal detectors, but the schools with Evolv are using them.

“It’s not 100%, but it is what we use to help maintain a safe environment in these schools,” Cofield said.

Parents like Battle are more at ease knowing there’s an extra layer of security for their kids.

“My teenager thinks he’s invincible. They were not as aware of their surroundings as we might like them to be,” he said.

The woman who brought the gun into Coker Wimberly Elementary School is now facing felony charges.

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