Photo: Melissa Phillip, Staff Photographer / Houston Chronicle Photo: Melissa Phillip, Staff Photographer / Houston Chronicle Photo: Courtesy Photo: Godofredo A. Vásquez, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer

Houston ISD officials are exploring the idea of installing metal detectors at the district’s middle and high schools in response to last week’s fatal on-campus shooting of a student, a step few districts in the region have taken following nationwide incidents of mass gun violence at schools.

In a blog post, Houston ISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan wrote that she will be meeting with students and community leaders to determine whether the district should increase security measures following the Jan. 14 shooting of Cesar Cortes, 19, at Bellaire High School. Authorities have said they believe a 16-year-old classmate accidentally shot Cortes while showing off a semiautomatic pistol.

“These meetings, along with reconvening safety and security council committees on every campus, will be a catalyst for increased vigilance and preventative measures in our schools,” Lathan wrote Tuesday. “Another measure the district is exploring includes assessing middle schools and high schools for metal detectors as a screening measure for entry onto campuses.”

HISD does not regularly employ metal detectors or require clear backpacks at its campuses. Aldine and Spring ISDs are the only two large Houston-area districts that use metal detectors each school day. Cy-Fair ISD, the region’s second-largest district, issued a clear backpack mandate for students following the May 2018 shooting at Santa Fe High School that left 10 people dead.

HISD officials have not committed to any district-wide security changes since Cortes’ death, and Lathan’s post contains no such promises. District leaders did not make any significant security changes following the shooting in Santa Fe.

Lathan’s administration did not grant an interview request or respond to written questions Wednesday, including her personal views on metal detectors. She is expected to address the news media Thursday following a meeting with Bellaire students about school safety. About 75 classmates and friends of Cortes called Friday for district officials to hear their concerns and suggestions for improving school safety.

Over the past five years, HISD officials have reported an annual average of 58 disciplinary actions against students for possessing or using weapons on campus. Nearly all occurred at the district’s middle and high schools, as well as its alternative education facilities.

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Nanette Zertuche, whose daughter attends Furr High School and two eldest sons graduated from HISD, said she believes weapons are more prevalent on school grounds than the data suggests. As a result, she supports adding metal detectors to middle and high schools.

For now, Zertuche said, district administrators should communicate more information about incidents involving weapons in schools.

“If kids bring them to the school, it doesn’t get notified to the parents like it should,” Zertuche said. “Then you get rumors and you hear about it from other students, and eventually it comes out. … Nothing is going to get changed unless HISD changes.”

The addition of metal detectors would represent one of HISD’s costliest and most significant security upgrades in recent years. While prices for metal detectors vary, outfitting all 106 campuses that serve grades 6 and higher could be costly, particularly if the district installed multiple machines at larger schools. Chicago Public Schools officials last year approved the purchase of an undisclosed number of metal detectors for nearly $4,000 per unit, with installation and warranty included.

HISD officials have not said who would operate and maintain metal detectors, which could carry additional costs.

Any districtwide purchases of metal detectors likely would require approval of the HISD school board. Trustee Patricia Allen, a former elementary school principal, said she supports the installation of metal detectors in middle and high schools, arguing the increase in security outweighs the logistical hurdles of screening students daily.

“You already see them so much, even at the football stadiums where they have lots of people going through those,” Allen said. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

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However, Trustee Dani Hernandez said she opposes metal detectors at schools, largely because of the message they send to students. Hernandez added that she heard backlash to metal detectors from community members following the November 2018 death of 18-year-old Delindsey Mack, who was killed in an apparent gang-related shooting within feet of Lamar High School grounds.

“We would need to figure out more about the cost, but also how that plays into the school-to-prison pipeline,” said Hernandez, a former elementary school teacher.

Research on the effectiveness of metal detectors in schools is limited. A 2010 analysis of seven studies on metal detectors published in the Journal of School Health found that “there is insufficient evidence to draw a conclusion about the potential beneficial effect” of the machines. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has been roundly criticized in the past five years after undercover tests showed security agents routinely failed to catch weapons passed through airport checkpoints.

About 4 percent of American public schools used random metal detector checks in 2015-16, according to a survey completed by the U.S. Department of Education.

HISD is expected to receive nearly $2 million additional dollars this year from the state government for safety-related upgrades, part of a law passed by Texas legislators in spring 2019 in response to the Santa Fe shooting. District officials could spend the money in several ways, including buying metal detectors, upgrading facilities, adding security cameras and hiring more police officers.

Lathan said she plans to meet with community leaders Feb. 7 to discuss school safety. Her blog post does not specify a location or whether the meeting will be open to the public.

A 16-year-old boy is charged as a juvenile with manslaughter in Cortes’ death. He remains in custody pending the results of a mental health evaluation. Authorities have not released his name due to his age.

jacob.carpenter@chron.com