To The Editor:

As a parent of three Newtown students, I have the utmost respect and gratitude towards our BOE members who volunteer a great deal of their time for the betterment of our school district. Many times, they are pressed to make decisions without having time to consider all of the relevant facts to inform those decisions. The Newtown Board of Ed decision to approve a weapon detection systems for Newtown Schools is a perfect example, and represents a costly mistake that prioritizes the appearance of security over genuine student safety and well-being, while creating a sense of distrust between the school administration and students.

Even five minutes of research reveals independent testing that has found alarming performance issues with modern weapon detection systems. The FTC recently sanctioned one of these manufacturers for making misleading claims about detection capabilities. When calibrated for maximum threat detection, these systems can produce false alarm rates of 32% according to security engineers working with them in schools — this means that potentially hundreds of our children will end up being searched each day — unnecessarily.

The student voices at the October 7 meeting were clear and compelling. Several students eloquently articulated concerns that the Board should take seriously rather than dismiss. These young people — the very individuals these systems are meant to protect — understand that starting each day reminded of potential violence creates anxiety rather than safety. Their statements are supported by research consistently shows that metal detectors increase student anxiety and create prison-like environments that harm learning, while providing very little in the way of additional security to the student population.

Looking at this from a financial perspective, while the generous and well meaning Sandy Hook Foundation’s $120,000 donation covers one system for the high school, expanding even to Reed and the Middle school would cost approximately $360,000 in initial equipment alone. Annual maintenance, training, and operational costs add thousands more. These systems typically get replaced every five years, which means that the BOE may, in the not too distant future, be asked to decide between purchasing these machines or retaining teachers — not an enviable position to be in.

Given our current budget pressures, can we justify these massive expenditures for technology that demonstrably fails to deliver promised results?

Our children deserve security measures based on evidence, not fear. They deserve a school environment that feels welcoming, not threatening. Most importantly, they deserve to have their voices heard and respected when decisions affect their daily lives. Of course Newtown residents would agree to implementing technology that works as promised, with no disruption to our students, at a reasonable cost. Research shows that this is none of these is the case here.

The narrow 4-3 vote suggests even Board members have serious reservations. Rather than rushing forward with a trial at football games, the Board should pause, conduct genuine community dialogue, and seriously examine whether this expensive technology serves our students’ best interests.

Michael T. O’Connor and Max O’Connor

Sandy Hook