The Karns City School District purchased metal detectors for its elementary schools and two other Butler County school districts got grants for safety through a state program.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced Tuesday that $5 million in Safe Schools Initiative Targeted Grants were awarded to 140 schools, police departments and municipalities.

The Butler School District received $18,292, the Freeport School District received $19,994 and the Karns City School District got $7,450. Each grant is earmarked for equipment to improve safety.

At Butler, the money will be used to begin upgrading emergency radios through Butler County Emergency Management.

The district's school police officers all carry hand-held radios and the grant will pay for replacements of some, but not all, of those radios.

Karns City is using the money to pay for new metal detectors for Sugarcreek Elementary School and Chicora Elementary School, Superintendent Eric Ritzert said.

Last year, the district added metal detectors at each school to screen students in grades 4 through 6 and visitors to the building, Ritzert said.

This year, two more detectors were installed so that the district can screen students in grades 2 through 6.

The district has retired state troopers working in each building as school police and all students in grades 7 through 12 are screened as they arrive each day. The district has never had an incident with a student bringing a gun to school, but students will occasionally bring pocket knives — forgetting they had them in their pocket.

“From our perspective, the reason we've done this is to ensure the safety and well-being of our kids. Occasionally kids bring knives or other things that are appropriate in the community, but not appropriate in the school,” Ritzert said.

Freeport Superintendent Ian Magness said the district will use the money for safety and security of its schools, but declined to give specifics.

The Safe Schools Initiative Targeted Grants is designed to assist schools with reducing unnecessary student disciplinary actions and promoting an environment of greater productivity, safety and learning and enhancing antiviolence efforts between schools and parents, local governments, law enforcement and community organizations, according to a news release. This includes awards for equipment and program initiatives and also grants for training and compensation for school resource or school police officers.

Districts in the county have taken advantage of this grant program before. Last year, Freeport got $25,000 for equipment and $31,000 for a school resource officer and Mars got $60,000 for a resource officer. In 2015, the Moniteau School District got $24,700 for equipment.