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Officials Talk About Fayette Co. School Security Timeline

Posted at 4:34 PM, Dec 13, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-13 17:58:04-05

LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18)– School districts across the country continue to beef up security after several high profile shootings. Fayette County is among them, rolling out a ten point safety plan just this year, but meeting the timelines for its stated goals has proved to be a challenge.

One of the ten points in the Comprehensive Safety Plan is the implementation of metal detectors in every middle and high school in the district.

“I think a lot of the schools are just anxious, they’re ready to embrace this and move forward, so we’re just working with them and trying to keep them informed as we move along,” said Fayette County Public Schools Chief Operating Officer Myron Thompson.

Thompson said that as they move along, so are districts across the country.

“Unfortunately, nationally, we’ve seen a rash of shootings and our vendor had a backorder or a rush on metal detectors, so we sort of adjusted our timeline a little bit,” he said.

Tates Creek High was supposed to get metal detectors last month, but because of the backlog, that timeline has been changed to January. Bryan Station and Henry Clay would be next in line.

Officials said that by the fall of next year, metal detectors will be in all middle and high schools.

“We’ve gotten to a point where you can’t think of opening a school without counselors and other sufficient mental health professionals to support the kids’ needs,” said Fayette County Public Schools Spokesperson Lisa Deffendall.