The weapons detection system at Castor Gardens Middle School, where two staffers were stabbed this week, doesn’t pick up knives

The student who stabbed two staffers at Castor Gardens Middle School this week was able to pass through the school’s weapons detection system without being flagged because it does not detect most knives.

The news came as the union for the Philadelphia school safety officers raised alarm about the systems, which have been touted by Superintendent Tony B. Watlington as part of his strategic plan.

Bernadette Ambrose-Smith, president of the School Police Association of Philadelphia, said she has asked the district to discuss concerns about OpenGate, the weapons detection system. Even her members are not adequately trained in operating it, Ambrose-Smith said, and the district has allowed non-safety personnel to run scans over her objections — and without any training at all.

At Castor Gardens, Ambrose-Smith said, the school’s security officer did not run weapons detection on the student who brought the knife to school.

“It’s a recipe for disaster, in my opinion,” said Ambrose-Smith. “This is about the safety of our kids.”

The stabbing happened Tuesday, when an 11-year-old student who qualifies for special education services stabbed a paraprofessional and a climate staffer at Castor Gardens in the Northeast. One of the staffers was treated at a hospital and released; the other did not require medical treatment.

The student was released to his parents and has not been charged.

But questions still linger about how a student with a knife was able to get into the school.

“I do understand from talking to several principals that there’s items that they’re concerned that these machines don’t even pick up,” said Ambrose-Smith.

A spokesperson for the company that makes OpenGate said they could not comment about what the system detects because of an ongoing investigation, but asked if OpenGate detected knives, Monique Braxton, a district spokesperson said “it does not.”

» READ MORE: Two staffers were stabbed at Castor Gardens Middle School because of an ‘epic administrative failure,’ union chief says

Watlington has touted OpenGate as a part of his strategic plan, but acknowledged its limitations: “The OpenGate technology identifies threats to safety by detecting specific types of weapons, such as assault rifles (it is not designed to detect lesser threats, such as knives.”)

All Philadelphia high schools have traditional metal detectors. In 2022, amid a rising number of violent incidents by younger students, the district moved to periodic weapons screening in all middle schools and elementary schools with middle grades.

In 2023, then-school safety chief Kevin Bethel announced that each of the district’s 12 middle schools would have what he described as “minimally invasive” weapons detection. The system uses artificial intelligence to scan students as they walk into the building. Unlike metal detectors, the machines don’t require students to take off backpacks or be subject to a search. Instead, they walk between two parallel poles, and an alert goes off if a weapon is spotted.

“I was looking for something that did not add to the trauma of the young people,” said Bethel, now the city’s police commissioner, in August 2023. “We felt this was a less-intrusive, very minimal way to do it.”

The 2024-25 school budget allocated $1.6 million for “weapons detection scanning equipment.”

When the minimally invasive weapons detection system was piloted, Ambrose-Smith said her union flagged it to district officials; principals apparently were given directives to assign whichever staffers they wanted to run the scan.

The union, concerned about safety, asked to bargain with the district on the subject, but school system officials ignored the demand, Ambrose-Smith said.

Even school safety officers receive less training now than they once did, she said, and have had no formal training in using the weapons detection system. Braxton disputed that, saying employees are trained on how to operate the system.

Ambrose-Smith said students often place objects that contain metal on a table before walking through the scan — computers, but also metal lunch boxes and other items. Those items are not searched, she said; students just pick them up after walking through the scan and go on their way.

Safety officers are worried in general about inadequate training, Ambrose-Smith said. Employees used to be called school police officers, but moved to be calling school safety officers under Bethel, who wanted the force’s focus to be more about mentoring and less about law and order.

“Our responsibilities have not decreased, they have increased. It’s great for us to be coaching and mentoring — now they made it part of our agendas. We’ve gained more responsibility and more disrespect,” said Ambrose-Smith.

Officers used to be in police-type uniforms; now they wear polo shirts.

“It’s a polo shirt that’s the same color as some housekeepers and some food service workers,” Ambrose-Smith said. “We don’t wear a badge, so sometimes we’re not even recognized in a crowd.”