The handgun used by a 17-year-old student from Nashville, Tennessee, in a school shooting on Wednesday that claimed the life of a 16-year-old girl was not detected by a weapon detection system driven by artificial intelligence, according to officials.
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Metro Nashville Public Schools spokesperson Sean Braisted stated that the program, known as Omnilert, was unable to identify the pistol due to the location of cameras at Antioch High School.
However, Braisted claimed that when police displayed their firearms in the wake of the shooting, the system was triggered.
He claimed that although Omnilert employs AI technology to detect guns by connecting to the school’s existing video network, “in this instance, based on the shooter’s location in proximity to the cameras, it wasn’t close enough to get an accurate read and to activate that alarm.”
In an email, Omnilert CEO Dave Fraser stated, “The gun was not visible due to the shooter’s and the gun’s location.” “This is not a case of the firearm not being recognized by the system.”
Adrienne Battle, the director of Metro Nashville Public Schools, stated, “There is not one system that is 100% going to capture everything that a person may have on them.”
The way Omnilert operates is by transforming security cameras “into life-saving tools, protecting lives while reducing the operational, legal, and social costs of gun violence,” according to its website. It assists in identifying firearms and then promptly sounds an alarm.
Since these are meant to record what is on camera, we needed a system that could operate on several cameras spread over the network. It does function, but depending on where that weapon might be exposed, it won’t operate in every situation or location,” Braisted stated. “So that’s why we have additional safety and security protocols.”
The school employs school resource officers, security vestibules, and AI systems at the front door in addition to Omnilert.
“It all works together as a system, but one system alone is not going to keep people safe,” Braisted stated. Additionally, there are the general public’s worries about a 17-year-old possessing a weapon.
“I mean, these are questions that are beyond the scope of Metro Schools but need to be addressed by the broader community,” he stated. “But we are doing what we can as a district to install and equip our schools with the safety protocols and resources that we can use to be safe.”
Experts stated that the missed detection serves as a warning about the dangers of depending too much on sophisticated security solutions.
According to Donald Maye, head of operations at IPVM, a surveillance technology research firm that looks at weapon-detection systems, this demonstrates the difficulties that school districts encounter.
According to Maye, they will declare that they have spent millions on a solution, but there are still a lot of situations that could arise in which the system will not be able to stop violence.
Building trust between students, teachers, and administrators to share early warning signs of potential threats, such as erratic behavior or troubling social media posts, is the foundation of the most effective measures against violence, according to Amy Klinger, director of programs for the nonprofit Educator’s School Safety Network.
According to Klinger, there are typically concerning behaviors, disclosures, conversations, and warning signals that you could notice if someone is listening. That’s fantastic if you mix it with technology. But technology cannot take its place.
Why the school didn’t utilize metal detectors has been questioned by some. According to research, there are advantages and disadvantages to using the detectors, Battle told reporters Thursday.
“There are many unforeseen repercussions, particularly when considering the kinds of learning environments we desire for our pupils. Principals, teachers, and other students are the first people we want our pupils to interact with,” she stated.
It’s unknown what motivated the shooting. Authorities are investigating “some materials on the internet” that are thought to be from the shooter, Solomon Henderson, according to Nashville Police Chief John Drake. After the attack, he shot himself to death.
Henderson was an active student, according to the authorities. Before he killed Josselin Corea Escalante by opening fire in the cafeteria, they claimed he rode the school bus. He was grazed in the arm, injuring another student.