A middle school in the Orlando area was placed on lockdown after a student was seen carrying a clarinet by an automated weapons detection system, which decided the child’s clarinet was actually a gun. My thoughts here are that your automated weapons detection system sucks. That isn’t how the principal of the school saw it, however.
A student was walking in the hallway, holding a musical instrument as if it were a weapon, which triggered the Code Red to activate. While there was no threat to campus, I’d like to ask you to speak with your student about the dangers of pretending to have a weapon on a school campus.
What danger was there, actually? None. No one was hurt. No one could be hurt. The real danger was that your system doesn’t work correctly, and it caused unnecessary panic. Not only that, but just like The Boy Who Cried Wolf, it creates alarm fatigue in that people will be less likely to believe future calls for lockdowns when they remember all of the times that they were forced to hide because of stupid nonsense like this.
6 Comments
SiG · December 19, 2025 at 8:23 am
I think you’re missing a point. Having the alarm system shutdown the school is a feature for a large percentage of the students. It’s a free incentive to get school shutdown and not have to that pesky “work” stuff the teachers keep insisting they do. I have a hard time believing students won’t try to make the system do that again. Unless students are very much more dedicated to studying than the averages 60 years ago. Cue the laugh track.
Steve S6 · December 19, 2025 at 9:56 am
Wait? Your system detects the threat AFTER it’s in the building? No perimeter denial?
Henry · December 19, 2025 at 10:31 am
Can we figure out how in America we seem to hire school administrators without an ounce of common sense?
Birdog357 · December 19, 2025 at 10:26 pm
Because teachers are generally midwits at best. Most are outright stupid.
Steve · December 19, 2025 at 11:09 am
Fixed it for them.
I’m with SiG that to the students, this is a feature, but so what? The stupid system was not installed by the students, and, most likely, in a world of fewer false alarms, they might have to learn even more about the wonders of multi-culti, socialism, and perversity. Until schools clean up their act, I’m all for students getting all the free periods they want.
Steve · December 19, 2025 at 11:19 am
On further reflection, this news story is an unalloyed good thing. No school or school resource officer should have any valid reason for trusting these automatic sensors. A good officer has his head on a swivel, and seen things like that a hundred times a day. At most, this is a tool a good officer can use to spot-check his skills. Woe to the crappy officer who shoots first, or the crappy school administrator who hired him. Indelible proof of the fallibility of the system, and knowledge of that fact means any overreaction would no longer be simple negligence.
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