GREENSBORO, N.C. — On Wednesday morning, Guilford County School leaders outlined some of their priorities for this upcoming school year.
One of them, like every year, was school safety.
New this year, are touchless body scanners inside the district’s 22 middle schools.
Students will walk through the scanners as they enter the building each day.
The scanners will once again be used throughout Guilford County’s 26 high schools.
Last year, four guns were found on four high school campuses, and body scanners detected two of them.
"Parents can expect to see our 12-point safety plan to continue and develop as we do everything that we can’t you deploy safety strategies to keep our kids students and staff members safe," said Superintendent, Dr. Whitney Oakley.
More than 1,800 cameras were recently upgraded in schools, with plans to continue installing additional cameras, giving the district more than 7,500 camera angles throughout 124 schools.
Parents and students we spoke with said the new safety measures are not a bad thing.
"It’s a good thing to have scanners in to protect the children. I don’t see anything wrong with it. I think it’s a good idea," said Danielle Chavis.
"I think it’s really good because schools need to be a safe place for everybody," said Mendenhall Middle student Grant Yount.
"I think it’s terrific; I think it’s great to use technology and modern tools to help keep students and teachers and everyone safe," said Brooke Alyea.
The new body scanners will be operational on the first day of school.
Dr. Oakley said mental health programs will also remain a priority this year, making sure students and teachers have the support they need.