Evolv: Are We Safer, or Just Scanned?

By Mackenzie McIntyre 

Safety at school is something we all care about, but how it's done matters just as much. We have now been using Evolv since spring of 2025, and we haven’t heard much about it. How does it work? And what do students think about it? We spoke with classmates, staff members (who asked to be left anonymous), and parents. We also dug into technology and explored how Evolv is changing the way we experience security every day. 

All twenty-five Metro Nashville Public High Schools have the Evolv system fully integrated into the school. At least thirty-five in Tennessee alone are equipped with Evolv. Over one thousand three hundred schools integrated the Evolv security system into their daily lives, hoping to protect staff and students alike from any external or possible internal threats. Simply put, Evolv is a security system that detects things that are not supposed to be at school by the frequency of the items themselves. Something most people don’t know about Evolv is that it is AI based, so this brings out the question: Why do we trust Evolv if it is essentially the artificial poison facing our youth? The AI detects threats by scanning for specific shapes, making it easier to use the 'Red Box' to pinpoint their location on individuals or their property. 

Even some staff members themselves say that they “do not trust” the Evolv system because it is “a response, while trying to make a difference, but not succeeding.” Some staff members believe the benefits of the system do not outweigh the false positives and failures of the system. One staff member says that Evolv was “not a good response, but it was a way for the district to say they are making a difference.”  

The question was posed to staff members: Do you believe the Evolv system can actually put a stop to real school threats? Several responses were along the lines of, “No, if an incident occurs, the Evolv system would essentially do nothing for us protection wise.” Another teacher stated, “I think that if we didn’t have the Evolv system after the recent shootings, people would say that the district isn’t doing enough to protect students. So, what’s the alternative? Sure, there are things to improve, but isn’t this what parents and students have asked for?” 

The other question worth mentioning is, “Where do we draw the line between student privacy and safety?” The responses (from parents and staff) encircled the government court rulings. “Since this is a government institution, students essentially lose all rights to privacy in schools via their parents’ consent for them to go there,” quoted from an anonymous staff member.  An interview with a parent (also a coding teacher) believes that Evolv is “not being used like it could be” and that “AI could be used to detect vapes—which are more detrimental to health than guns—but we have not trained it to do that...it’s almost like they don’t want to know how many kids are vaping.” 

Many of our students and staff members experience false positives when it comes to the Evolv systems. Diabetic students must bring insulin to take before eating, and any time the needles go through the system, they ping. When I posed the question, “Does the Evolv system make you feel anxious?” Elli Thomas, a senior responded, “No, more annoyed than anything. Having to take out everything and then walk Uptown with the things in hand.”

Another one of our seniors, Jewells Reed, stated she does not trust the Evolv system, because “it beeps randomly, gives false positives, and the overall inconvenience.” She also said, “It is a temporary solution, like a band aid before you fix a pipe.” Then there was an experience with the interviewee where a student had brought a knife, and it never went off. While the student (who does not go here) had no ill intent, the weapon was still on campus. 

At the end of the day, should we be afraid of the people, or rather the creations of the people? (Since it comes from the human mind.) We think about these things, and we create them thinking that they will make the world better, but it takes away from our youth’s creative intelligence. So how do we determine whether this system is effective? Ask questions. That’s all you can do. All electronic devices will have faults, but they can also make our lives better and more efficient.