Mesa Public Schools will install vape detectors in all of its middle and high school bathrooms
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Mesa Public Schools will install vape detectors in all of its middle and high school bathrooms.
In a unanimous vote this week, the board also approved the installation of weapons detectors on those same campuses.
Assistant Superintendent Randy Mahlerwein said he’s spoken to students in Avondale’s Agua Fria Unified School District, where detectors were installed last spring.
“Our students do want to feel safe,” said Mahlerwein. “Our students were shaken by certain incidents and I think as Mesa we owe it to our students to put a safe environment so they can come to school and do what they should be doing, and being kids.”
The students, he said, appreciate the extra precaution.
“Every single one of them I asked, ‘How does it make you feel?’” said Mahlerwein. “And I didn’t lead the question ‘cause I wanted to know. And everyone said, ‘It makes me feel safer. We like it.’”
Associate superintendent Holly Williams said the aim is for Skyline High School in Mesa to start testing the new systems next spring.
“It’s a large enough campus with multiple entrances to allow us to test it out with a staff that’s eager to help us in that and then we’ll roll it out to our other high schools, and then our junior highs,” said Williams.
Earlier this month, Mesa voters rejected a $500 million bond question that would have funded the new equipment.
