JEFFERSON TWP — A South Butler School District parent has started an online petition to have metal detectors installed at every district school.

Tamara Finucan, who has a child in each of the district's four buildings, started the petition Thursday night on change.org as a result of the threat to the district Monday.

Jason Bowen, 18, faces terroristic threats and other charges for a video on his Snapchat account that shows him firing an AK style weapon with the caption “Training for prom walk.” He remains in the Butler County Prison on $100,000 cash bond.

An individual recorded the video and took it to the state police barracks in Butler on Sunday night.

Finucan said her family moved to the South Butler district three years ago from the Butler School District.

“After (the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.), Butler took steps to get their safety under control by putting armed guards and metal detectors at entrances, and it made me and other parents and the children feel safer,” she said.

She was surprised that South Butler does not have metal detectors, which would find knives, guns and other weapons inside items that students bring to school.

“We're in a day and age where it's not an option; it should just happen,” Finucan said.

A canvas of the area showed that all high schools in Butler County except Knoch High School have metal detectors. In surrounding districts, North Allegheny and Deer Lakes do not have metal detectors in their high schools.

Finucan kept her children home from school Friday after a rumor circulated regarding a supposed threat that day.

Superintendent David Foley sent a letter to parents Thursday stating that investigations by police did not substantiate those threatening rumors.

“I think the school district has been doing a fantastic job at securing the schools from external threats, but not enough for internal threats,” Finucan said. “Any kid with a weapon could walk right into school. That was my concern all week.”

Parent Deana Pethtel, who has a combined seven children in the district with her husband, Josh, agreed.

“The lockdown is for visitors and they don't search the kids,” Pethtel said. “The kids are the ones making the threats.”

She said her daughter complained that students might be forced to wait outside in the cold weather if metal detectors are installed, but Pethtel said a little chilly weather is nothing compared to a student bringing a weapon to school.

“I think in the end, it will calm a lot of people's fears and prevent a threat, because if the kids know about metal detectors, they're not going to bring a gun in,” said Pethtel, who also kept her kids at home Friday.

Parent Lesley Fair, who has one student at the primary school, said she was an employee at the district last year before a health problem forced her to resign.

“I was shocked when I was hired to find out there were not metal detectors at the primary school or any building,” Fair said. “I had just assumed they did.”

Fair said she would not be averse to somehow helping out with the expense of metal detectors.

“To me, as a resident of Jefferson Township and a taxpayer, I would be totally willing to pay more, if needed, to make this happen,” she said. “I want to know my son is going to survive his high school experience and get to go to college someday.”

She said because her child is in the primary school, she hesitantly decided to put him on the bus Friday morning.

“If he were in the high school, I probably would not have sent him today,” she said.

Foley said on Friday that the district has applied for a large safety grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency that could include funds for metal detectors.

The grant, which was requested by hundreds of districts across the state, will begin to be awarded in the spring, Foley said.

He said the school board and administration are always looking to increase school safety.

“We want students to be comfortable in our school district and we want parents to be comfortable sending them,” Foley said.

Foley understands the parents' contention that students could bring weapons into school even in the face of a lockdown and heightened security.

“I understand the concern and we're concerned and constantly talking to our students about being safe and reporting things they're seeing inside and outside of the schools and different things that are heard throughout the day,” he said.

He could not say whether the detectors, should the district receive the grant, would be installed in every school building.

Foley did confirm that attendance was decreased Friday, but did not want to divulge actual counts.

The school board in March and April discussed the possibility of adding metal detectors, but no action was taken.

The detection system touted at that time by the district's director of school police and transportation, Pat Sarnese, would cost about $35,000 and would require several adults to staff the machines each morning.

Foley said the district will wait to see if they receive all or part of the state grant and go from there regarding metal detectors.

“I'm certain it's going to come up at the (school board) meeting on Wednesday,” Foley said.

School board member Matt Cimbala said Sarnese gave the presentation on metal detectors last spring after the board asked the school police if they think metal detectors would make the schools safer.

Cimbala said adding detectors must be carefully planned to accommodate the staff that would monitor them, coordinate with unloading buses in the morning, and avoid cutting into classroom time.

“If the police officers say (metal detectors) would keep kids safe, I would vote for it,” Cimbala said.

He added that he doesn't think the $35,000 price tag on the system recommended by Sarnese was unreasonable, but stressed that a plan would have to be put in place if detectors were added.

“You have to build a whole strategy around them,” Cimbala said.

Regarding the petition, Finucan initially asked for 100 supporters Friday morning. When that number was quickly reached, she raised it to 200 and then 500 later in the day.

As of Friday evening, more than 600 people had signed the petition.