A metal detector is coming to the entrance at Palmerton Area High School, district officials said during Tuesday night’s board meeting, as the next step in districtwide security upgrades.

When it is up and running, visitors who arrive at the school after students are in the building will be routed through the detector.

At least initially, students will not go through the detector in the morning, and visitors to athletic events after the school day will also not go through it.

District resident Lori Nemeth told the board Tuesday that limiting who has to walk through the detector didn’t make sense to her.

“I would make everyone go through it,” she said. “Why spend the money otherwise? You hear a lot more about students bringing weapons into the building than visitors.”

Director Earl Paules said while he understood Nemeth’s concern, making every student go single file through the detector in the morning would create a significant logjam at the front door.

“I hear what you’re saying though,” Paules said.

Superintendent Scot Engler said the board approved the security upgrade based on a proposal taking into account what other districts do.

In many cases, that protocol varies from school to school and depends largely on the equipment on hand and the size of the security staff within the district.

“Allen, for example, screens every student coming in, but they have three airport-style metal detectors,” Engler said. “If the board wants to look at something different, we can certainly do that.”

Instead of having each student go through the detector each day, resident Jeff Henry suggested choosing a school bus at random and running those students through the screening process.

“It wouldn’t take up a lot of time and may prevent something from happening if the kids don’t know which bus will be picked,” Henry said.

Board President Kate Baumgardt said the detector is not the end of the road when it comes to the topic of security.

“I think we needed a place to start, and this was that starting point,” she said. “It is by no means the end of the discussion.”