Overview
- Lawton Chiles Middle School in Oviedo initiated a code red after an AI surveillance alert flagged a student’s clarinet as a firearm.
- Police searched the campus, deemed the response precautionary, and reported no injuries or ongoing threat.
- Principal Dr. Melissa Laudani told parents the district uses automated threat detection and urged conversations about students pretending to have weapons.
- Metro reported that ZeroEyes runs the district’s system, and co-founder Sam Alaimo said dispatching officers was preferable to not responding; other coverage noted the specific system was not publicly confirmed.
- The incident is the latest false positive cited in debates over school AI surveillance, following a Baltimore case where a bag of chips was misidentified as a gun.