Principal Hood and the North Mecklenburg High School administration have taken steps this year to improve school security and safety as threats of violence on campus have emerged from the surrounding community.
Twice this year, threats have disrupted the school day, including the external one on Sept. 13 that caused an hour-long extension of the day as police swept the campus. This threat came days before the first lockdown drill of the academic year, one of many security measures implemented by the administration.
The purpose of the classroom simulation of a lockdown was to ensure that “[students and staff] know how to respond in an emergency,” said the principal. Other security measures include the “continued use of security scanners daily,” including an increase in the “number and locations of scanners that are used for all students.”
In a pair of statements, the administration also highlighted the addition of a second full-time school resource officer and five new campus security associates regularly stationed at North.
The augmented measures are part of a nationwide trend to bolster security on school campuses. In 2021, schools across the country spent more than $3 billion on safety systems, a fifteen percent increase from 2017. This investment comes as gun violence in schools has only accelerated, with almost half of all 2,069 school shootings since 1970 occurring in the last decade alone.
The district has implemented daily safety screenings at all twenty-one of its major high schools — meaning that it will spend at least $3.8 million on metal detectors every year, according to public records.
Proponents of safety screenings and increased campus security personnel say that they provide much-needed security to school campuses. Metal detectors can help confiscate weapons students try to bring onto school grounds. After the implementation of body scanners in CMS schools last year, the number of weapons found on campuses declined by 74%. In a statement, the superintendent attributed this decline to the scanners as well as “mental health awareness, bullying prevention, [the See Something Say Something anonymous reporting system], Title IX, [and] School Resource Officers.”
Simultaneously, school resource officers can help bring an immediate police response in an emergency, along with several other safety benefits. A review in 2014 by the University of Buffalo found that the presence of SROs “reduced suspensions, arrests for assaults and weapons charges, disciplinary actions, serious school violence, and crime in the areas surrounding schools.”
But the widely-cited positive impacts of these measures are not yet conclusive. Opponents argue that metal detectors do little to prevent premeditated school violence, an idea they support with a 2011 study that found that “there is insufficient data in the literature to determine whether the presence of metal detectors in schools reduces the risk.” (It should be noted that, while this study’s findings do not explicitly endorse the implementation of safety screenings, a lack of evidence does not constitute a disproof of the idea that metal detectors could carry some benefits.)
Critics also argue that an expanded police presence in school hallways leads to the disproportionate criminalization of students of color. Black and brown students are affected more by out-of-school suspension and law enforcement referrals and arrests than their white counterparts, a result of systemic racism.
Still, the district is continuing to implement new proposals every day. At North Mecklenburg, the administration plans to upgrade the campus-wide security camera system and hire additional campus security associates.
Not all proposals to reinforce security on campuses succeed. In November 2021, CMS purchased nearly 46,000 clear backpacks for distribution in its high schools (spending more than $440,000). But after it discovered a warning tag that the bags were made with potentially carcinogenic materials, the district scrapped the plan and auctioned them off.
The measures that the district and the school administration have implemented are imperfect solutions to a complex, nationwide problem. In all, though, the administration emphasizes that their “goal each and every day is to ensure all staff and students are safe and have the opportunity to learn and perform to the best of their potential.” 🆅