COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Columbus high school students got their first taste Tuesday of how the new weapon detection system will work, but there are parents who said they still want more answers.

Columbus City Schools said the rollout went smoothly, but officials would not comment about the system.

Matt Monjot, the father of a Whetstone High School student, said the new procedures for the system started Tuesday, and while he is not against the new plan, he thinks there are better ways for the district to solve the problem.

“Physical security, metal detectors, harder locked doors that are more difficult to open, those things cost a ton of money,” he said. “Training security staff to know how to engage with the kids and whatnot, it’s a harder thing to do, but in the end, you get better results.”

Monjot said he wants to know what the comprehensive security plan will be, believing there are better ways the district could have spent the $3 million-plus it is spending on the weapon detection system.

Monjot also wished the district would have given parents more input on the rollout and doesn’t believe the school board was transparent about the rollout and how it would work.

“Because most of the time, I am finding out on the day of that it is going on or I’m finding out from Whetstone,” he said. “I’m not getting it from the central authority.”

Guns have been found in Columbus City Schools at least a dozen times this school year, the most recent being last week at Eastmoor Academy.

Regina Fuentes, a teacher at Eastmoor and the spokesperson for the Columbus Education Association, agrees the system is a reactive, temporary fix, but said it is a step in the right direction.

“The problem is that whatever is happening in our neighborhoods and in our community is, in fact, bleeding into the schools and students don’t leave that stuff at home,” Fuentes said.

With the new system, all students will enter and exit through the same door. Fuentes said the line was long and that some students were late to first period because of this.

“It took a long time and it just didn’t leave the students with a very comforted feeling and that’s the thing that I regret the most of all or don’t like most of all, is that students just feel so defeated after something like that,” she said. “And I don’t want students coming to school feeling defeated. I want them to feel encouraged.”

Fuentes said problems that start in the community are being brought to the schools and hopes the district will bring in the support the students really need to get to the root of this.

“We have to start getting the support that we need in the schools,” she said. “The support from counselors, the support from the community, the support from parents where parents and community members are having these conversations with students on how to properly deal with conflict.”

Columbus City Schools said the weapon detection system will be fully operational next week.