State College Area School District students in grades six through 12 will see new regular security measures in place for the 2025-26 academic year, according to a message to families from Superintendent Curtis Johnson on Tuesday.
The new protocols stem from a review of the district’s safety protocols after an alleged school shooting plot at State High was thwarted by police in April, and were developed in conjunction with recommendations from law enforcement as well as input from community members and student leaders, according to the message.
“These new measures, which align with the Pennsylvania Department of Education guidelines, will be a strong addition to our regular K-12 practices of taking attendance on a daily basis as well as conducting evacuation, stay-put/lockdown and severe weather drills,” Johnson wrote.
Secondary students will now be required to wear an ID at all times while on school grounds. The district will be distributing new IDs and breakaway lanyards to all students on the first day of school. New IDs will include the student’s preferred name, photo and a QR code that, when scanned, will display the student number.
“The IDs will enable us to visually and digitally identify all currently enrolled students immediately, and quickly scan the QR code to retrieve the student number, which provides the district with access to student information that is crucial in the event of an emergency,” Johnson wrote.
While lanyards are being provided, students may use their own or other display options as long as they meet attire standards and ensure the ID is visible at all times.
Once new IDs have been distributed, all State High, Delta Middle and Delta High students will be required to scan their them upon entering the buildings. Old IDs, screenshots and PowerSchool IDs on phones will no longer be accepted.
Park Forest and Mount Nittany middle school students will not be required to scan upon entry, but random checks will be conducted at the doors and in homerooms.
The district also will perform random searches at all secondary buildings throughout the school year. The searches will be similar to those used on a temporary basis in the spring, when bag searches and metal detectors were used at student arrival.
A policy approved by the school board at its July 21 meeting after previous discussion spells out the circumstances for conducting random or general searches, individualized suspicion searches, searches upon consent and searches at the request of law enforcement.
Metal detectors will not be used on a daily basis. The school board also approved on July 21 a metal detector policy that authorizes district administration to use walk-through or hand-held metal detectors “in circumstances when reasonable suspicion is identified,” such as when there is reliable information that identified or unidentified students are in possession of weapons, when there is a pattern of weapons being found on school property or at school events, or when violence using weapons has occurred on school property or at a school event.
The metal detector policy also allows for metal detectors to be used in random searches.
“As always, safety and security is our top priority, and we believe these measures will enhance the security of our entire school community,” Johnson wrote in the message on Tuesday. “Thank you for your support and cooperation as we implement these new protocols.”
School security protocols received heightened scrutiny after the April threat, when a former student was arrested for allegedly plotting to use guns and explosive devices in an attack on the school. A Centre County judge bound over for trial charges of conspiracy to commit murder and unlawful possession of a firearm against 20-year-old Braeden Phillips and denied his request for bail at a preliminary hearing. Phillips is incarcerated at the Centre County Correctional Facility while awaiting trial.
