Highland Park High School set to roll out new weapon detection system on first day of school

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — Highland Park residents shared their takes on the installation of a new weapons detection system at Highland Park High School, which students will walk through tomorrow as they enter the building for their first day of school.

“Right now is not the time to assign blame. Right now is the time for us to discuss where and how we move forward especially tomorrow and the next few days,” said one Highland Park Resident.

Last week, the board of District 113 approved having a weapons detection system, starting at one school, at one door.

Parents who form part of the community group “Parents for Securing Our Schools” said they applaud the move, but would like to see the system implemented at all entrances.

“Parents SOS believes that for us to do everything possible to make our kids as safe as possible that there must be a WDS at every entrance at every door,” the same resident said. “But it appears this won’t be the case when school starts tomorrow.”

Atop the mind of many at the meeting, was the recent shooting death of a 16-year-old Highland Park High School student. School officials said they expedited the original roll out of the weapon detection system after that specific incident at the meeting Tuesday evening.

“Safety is our no. 1 priority,” said Brian Ahamer, Chief Operations Officer of District 113. “We feel this will help deter violence in our school.”

According to District 113 officials, the new system will be moved around to an unspecified entrance tomorrow morning, adding that the results of this phase could then help them expand to cover all entrances of the building in the future.