The Jeff Davis School Board has received a state grant to buy metal detectors to help bolster school security.

Superintendent John Hall said Thursday the district was one of three parishes in Southwest Louisiana and South Central Louisiana to receive a $518,000 school safety grant as part of a $20 Louisiana Department of Education’s Stronger Connections program. The funds will be used to keep students and teachers safe by reinforcing single-points of entry.

“School safety is multifaceted and a way of life,” State Superintendent Dr. Cade Bromley said in a press release. “We are encouraged by the proposals submitted and pleased to bolster security measures at local campuses.”

“Our teachers have asked for this….our community has asked for it, but it is expensive to do, but now we have the funds to do it,” Hall said.

The district hopes to purchase 25 to 30 portable metal detectors which will allow the schools to move the detectors to different locations on campus.

“We want to try to get them at all our high schools and junior high schools first, but they will be at every school eventually,” Hall said.

Hall said the goal is to have the metal detectors installed at the three Jennings schools before the start of the new school year. Additional schools will be added as the metal detectors are received, he said.

“We have talked about metal detectors in the past and we have had some principals and teachers that have asked for them,” Hall said. “We want to get them in as many schools as we can.”

The metal detectors will take time to install and employees will have to be trained to use them, he said.