Officials with Trigg County Public Schools will be taking the next two, or so, weeks to ponder opting in on a one-year pilot project with “Zero Eyes” — a successful AI company that uses a district’s camera system for lethal and non-lethal weapons detection.
Board members received a concise demonstration of its effectiveness Thursday night at Trigg County Middle School, through a zoom call from Vice President of Sales Bryan St. Bernard — in which he was able to showcase everything from how the organization’s servers and messaging works, all the way down to sifting out false positives.
With home bases in Honolulu and Philadelphia, St. Bernard said those operations work like a 911 dispatch center. With clients in 44 states, but currently no schools in Kentucky, he clarified that the process doesn’t involve live streams, but instead uses repeated snapshots — allowing pinpoint precision and a potential assailant’s location within seconds.
In order to fully calibrate the AI, and further reduce false positives, St. Bernard — who has more than 20 years of previous military experience — said “Zero Eyes” has no less than 1,000,000 images of guns cached into its data bank, with new ones being added weekly by use of a green screen.
As such, he said false positive rate is at “less than 0.1%,” but that those false positives and alerts can also save lives — sometimes serving as a de-escalation tool for local authorities.
One of the system’s only drawbacks, St. Bernard said, is that it doesn’t detect concealed guns.
It does, however, immediately recognize them once revealed.
St. Bernard also further explained, using unfortunate national events.
Using Title IV funds, Superintendent Rex Booth said that the district would only need to spend roughly $7,000 to implement this before the end of the 2024-25 academic year.
In other school news:
— Booth had several nuggets of good news for the district:
a) More than 20 girls showed up for the first practice of flag football. Currently, the teams will play each other, but there is expectation for other schools to start programs, and for the Kentucky High School Athletic Association to sanction the sport for competition. This would assist with district Title IX concerns.
b) “High Five Fridays,” particularly at Trigg County Middle School, have been wildly successful, improving morale.
c) More than 1,500 elders showed up for “Grandparents Day” at the Trigg County Cafeteria. Board member Charlene Sheehan added that community members have long looked forward to returning to campus.
— Laura James, the district’s director of student services and personnel, said average daily attendance through month three was still hovering close to 96%. That’s nearly two percent higher than last year, three percent higher than 2022 and 2023.s
Among the biggest behavior concerns: tobacco possession and use, as well as disrespectful behavior, though both she said have been on the decline since the start of school.
As a means of systematic competency and consistency, Booth confirmed that the district and all of its leaders have agreed on a comprehensive “behavior matrix,” in which all forms of discipline match the appropriate behaviors, regardless of the school.
— Prior to the regular meeting, the board and every SBDM and district principal went to great lengths to analyze this year’s Kentucky Summative Assessment. Analysis of such will come at a later time.
