(Radio Iowa) – A school district in northeast Iowa is the first in the area to use A-I for detecting possible guns in its buildings. La Porte City Union Community School District Superintendent John Howard says it’s a simpler alternative to arming teachers. “We have never had any conversations about arming teachers in our district. I know some districts have, and that’s been met with some push-back in terms of insurance and other legalities. We’ve never had that conversation here,” Howard says.

Superintendent Howard says the decision is a response in part to the Perry school shooting last year. )”We don’t want anything like that to happen here. No district wants anything like that to happen in their district,” Howard says. “So this is just another preventative measure to prevent a tragedy such as that.”

The district with some 900 students has installed camera software that detects guns across four buildings in two different towns that will notify staff and administration, and then call law enforcement.