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Weapons screening comes to Brevard middle schools, starting at Central Middle
Brevard Public Schools is adding OpenGate walk-through weapons screening to its middle schools, starting at Central Middle, with all of them expected to have it by March 2027. Here is how screening works, what the high schools have shown, and how it connects to the school sales tax on the Nov. 3 ballot.
Middle schoolers in Brevard County will soon walk through the same weapons-screening gates that every traditional public high school in the county has used since March 2025.
Brevard Public Schools is expanding its OpenGate walk-through screening to middle schools, starting at Central Middle School. The district plans to add the systems in phases, with every middle school expected to have them by March 2027, WFTV reported Saturday. News 6 reported in April that the district has 12 middle schools.
That is later than first described. In April, the district told News 6 the goal was to have the middle school gates ready for this school year.
What families should expect
Students and visitors will walk through the gates as they enter school buildings. If the system alerts, the person walks through a second time. If it alerts again, staff direct the person to a separate screening area, where personal items may be checked. The district says each middle school will notify families before screening begins on its campus, explaining what students and parents should expect.
Each OpenGate unit is a pair of battery-powered pillars about 3 feet apart, light enough to move around a campus. The district has not published the order in which the other middle schools will get them.
Who pays for it
Surtax dollars are paying for the expansion, the district says. That is the half-cent school sales tax Brevard voters approved in 2014 and renewed in 2020. The school board was expected to approve starting the middle school rollout at its April 28 meeting, News 6 reported. When the board first heard about OpenGate in April 2024, each unit cost $17,000, according to News 6. The district has not released a per-unit cost for the middle school phase.
What the high schools have shown
The district has not published totals for how many weapons the gates have flagged or how long students wait to get in. It has publicly credited the system in two cases:
Cocoa High, February 2025: the gates detected a student trying to enter campus with a weapon, which was confiscated, and the student was taken into police custody, the district said.
Palm Bay Magnet High, November 2025: the gates detected a loaded handgun at the front office checkpoint. Melbourne police said the 17-year-old student was charged with possessing a firearm on school grounds and possession by a minor.
The ballot connection
The same half-cent school sales tax is on the Nov. 3 ballot. Brevard voters will decide whether to renew it for 10 more years “to continue critical school facility projects, school security improvements and technology upgrades,” according to the ballot language. The tax adds 50 cents to every $100 in eligible purchases, Central Florida Public Media reported.
The middle school gates are being paid for with money from the current tax. Spending under a renewed tax would be reviewed by an independent citizens’ oversight committee, the ballot language says.
321 Daily will update this story as the district announces each school’s start date.
