NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The superintendent of schools, citing several recent shootings involving young people, has ordered that metal detectors be used at all city high schools beginning Monday.

"We lost several students, and that got my mind working. It's a lot of guns out there on the streets. We are a microcosm of a larger macrocosm. We are going to be safe, not sorry," Superintendent of Schools Reginald Mayo said Thursday.

Hillhouse and Wilbur Cross, the two largest high schools and their annexes, have had metal detectors in place for years.

Beginning Monday, security guards will use hand-held metal detectors for random screenings at the Sound School, New Haven Academy, Cooperative High School for Arts and Humanities, Hyde Leadership Academy, Metropolitan Business Academy and High School in the Community.

Hill Regional Career High School will have a metal detector that students walk through because it has more students.

In New Haven, school officials report one to two guns a year in the city schools.

One gun is too many in our schools," Mayo said. "All of our high schools will have random wanding down of students. We will do as many as possible."

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