NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — North Little Rock schools are rolling out new safety technology this year as the district's security services have worked to promote safety on multiple fronts.
"We want to create an environment where the teachers can teach and the students can learn," NLR School District's Director of Security Services Chief Hayward Finks said.
North Little Rock is one of the first Arkansas schools to upgrade security after the tragedy in Uvalde— they explained that they started this initiative months prior to the attack.
Chief Finks added, "...the district was already ahead as far as preparing and, and developing plans to enhance the safety throughout the district."
The new technology will include a pilot program for North Little Rock High School that will have weapon detectors at every student entrance.
Chief Finks explained to administrators how the new technology works on Wednesday.
"This is a weapon detection system designed to pick up any firearms or large knives, anything that can cause mass casualties," said Finks. "And so the thing about this that's going to be good for the district is that we can use them every day, it's not going to slow us down getting people in and out of the buildings because they don't have to empty their pockets take off belts; we don't have to look in bags. As long as they don't have a firearm or large knife, they can walk right through it."
He added that the only caveat was students will have to take any laptops out of their bags before going through the Open Gate metal detector.
While administrators hope this Open Gate technology will be a fast and secure process, the demonstration on Wednesday showed there is a chance it can go off with other metals and lead to a further wand or bag search.
North Little Rock Superintendent Gregory Pilewski said this is all in the name of safety and something that has already been a process for previous NLR events.
"When parents who are back to school and they sign off on that there's a section in there that talks about that. So that does cover us and what the expectations are," Pilewski said.
The district has also upgraded its surveillance system on campuses. Chief Finks explained on Wednesday that schools will soon be able to look for things as specific as a person wearing a certain color shirt as well as easily keep track of an intruder's path.
"Once we have a description we can put that into our camera system and easily determine where that person came from, where they are, where they may be possibly headed," Finks said.
The schools will also use a high-tech security database, RAPTOR to vet visitors and better connect staff during an emergency.
There have been some mixed reactions from parents, with some commenting online that they're concerned the new tech could make the school appear to be prison-like.
Meanwhile, others have expressed gratitude for the extra layer of protection.
Superintendent Pilewski said he welcomes anyone with concerns to reach out.
"Reach out to your school principal, certainly reach out to Chief Finks, reach out to myself," he said.
On Thursday school administrators are also set to take part in active shooter training. Student involvement in drills during the school year is not expected to change.