GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. – Monday’s school shooting at Butler High School in Matthews, is putting safety procedures and protocol top of mind for Triad school leaders.
Tuesday night, the Guilford County Board of Education held a moment of silence for Butler High School, and members talked about how it hits close to home. They also reminded parents and students about several security upgrades underway now, thanks to money approved in the budget just a few months ago.
For educators across Guilford County Schools, safety is always the top priority, but it takes time to make sure new security measures are the adequate.
The district’s budget was approved over the summer and included more than $5 million worth of upgrades. We asked about the upgrades and lessons learned following the Matthews school shooting.
“Communication is incredibly important,” said GCS Chief Operations Officer Scott McCully, “Some takeaways from yesterday were around communication. Do our PAs work, for example, do our phones work? Do all of our systems that connect us to the front office, are all of those working? Panic buttons that sort of thing.”
Outside of communication, McCully notes changes to the GCS tracking abilities. In 6 months, he says the district will have software online to track incidents and issues across the system, whether they are man-made, like a school shooting, or a natural disaster, like a tornado.
The district is also installing more door buzzers, especially at large schools, and checking to see all cameras work.
“It’s certainly something that keeps me up at night - making sure that our students and our staff are safe every day,” McCully said, “Whether that is increased training, better access control, more door buzzers, more enhanced cameras, it is all a part of that package to keep our students and staff safe.”
Leaders say it's equally important to school security, to have an ear to the ground. In the spring, many educators were trained in programs to combat bullying, and ensure students know ways to report issues to trusted adults.
“I always say that there are more kids in the school that there are adults, so we need their eyes and their ears, and we need for them to be able to share things that they are hearing that an adult may not hear,” said Director of Student Support Services Fredricca Stokes, “Our focus is really trying to build relationships with our students.”
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