Philadelphia-area school district leader reflects on new AI safety system added this year
As the 2024–2025 school year wraps up, the superintendent of Delaware County's largest school system is reflecting on the impact of new technology designed to keep students safe.
Upper Darby School District Superintendent Daniel McGarry said since its installation on Dec.11, 2024, Evolv has detected a total of seven knives or box cutters, two brass knuckles and seven pepper spray devices across the three schools.
"We don't have any evidence that these weapons were coming on campus as a use of force," McGarry said. "It was usually an awkwardness like, 'I had this because I was cutting food.'"
Evolv, which utilizes artificial intelligence to scan for potential weapons, was installed at Upper Darby High School, Beverly Hills Middle School and Drexel Hill Middle School.
"There was fear and some trepidation that it would take hours to get kids into the school, that we would over-identify and improperly search kids," McGarry said. "Thanks to the work of our kids and our school community, none of those things actually happened."
When staff found weapons, they confiscated them and turned them over to police. Police conducted a background check on families and, in some cases, a threat assessment. Students were disciplined for having a weapon on school property, but they were not determined to be a threat in any of the cases.
Installing a weapons-detection system had been in the works for years, but the idea gained renewed interest after two firearms-related incidents in the district at the beginning of the school year.
McGarry said a student brought a gun to Upper Darby High School on Sept. 3, 2024, and then 10 days later, another student brought in an AR-15-style magazine.
McGarry previously told CBS News Philadelphia the weapons detection system is "not a metal detector." The superintendent said it's the same technology used at Lincoln Financial Field.
"Since we had the gun in the beginning of the school year, we have not found any guns on any individuals on campus at any of our secondary schools," McGarry said.
Certain harmless objects like Chromebooks are known to set off the scanners.
"We had almost 800,000 visitors from Dec. 11 to the last time we gave this update, which was this past month," Superintendent McGarry said. "Of those 800,000 visitors, there were 70,000 alerts. The vast majority of those alerts were for umbrellas, computers left in backpacks and eyeglass kits."
McGarry said he is confident that as students continue to get used to the technology, they will be more forthcoming about removing their laptops and eyeglass cases from their backpacks.
"To put anything in the middle of the school year, just weeks before you go on winter break, and to have the success we have, speaks to the type of people who work at this organization," McGarry said.
