WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Many at Carver High School in Winston-Salem were shaken up on Monday after a student brought a loaded gun to class. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the incident has led to calls for metal detectors to be used every day.
Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough has been one of the most vocal advocates for this change. Currently, every middle and high school in the Winston-Salem Forsyth County School District has metal detectors, but they are only used randomly or when the school receives a tip.
“You would be surprised at what comes through those doors every day randomly,” Kimbrough said. “And if it’s random, all I’ve got to do is walk and see that it’s happening and make a U-turn back to the car, go to the bushes or the wood line, and then proceed on in. But if I know it’s happening every day, I’m not even bringing it.”
Kimbrough said that every time something like this happens, it takes him back to the deadly shooting at Mount Tabor in 2021.
“What we’re doing now is juggling, and it’s just a matter of time, and I don’t want that on my watch again. I don’t ever want to live through another Mount Tabor. I want to walk away from here in the next few years or whatever my term is without having another Mount Tabor. I still see that in my sleep at night.”
Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools Superintendent Tricia McManus said incidents like this one make her rethink the district’s policies. However, she emphasized that communities need to come together to help keep guns off campus.
“If we could get to the root cause and figure out why our students are dealing with so many issues that they should not have to deal with in the communities in which they live,” McManus said. “How do we address that? And then we can continue to address our security measures that we have in place every day and continue to beef up our randomization, and that’s what we’re doing this year.”
Situations like Monday’s have the district concerned as well. The superintendent said they are looking into ways to enhance security, from adding more high-tech metal detectors to requesting more campus officers and other measures. However, she noted that these changes come with a cost.
“We need about $2 million to put that in every one of our middle and high schools, and so, yes, we can ask for more funds from the county commission,” McManus said. “We used a lot of our bond funds to get all of our campuses to the level of security they are now, plus we used state safety grants. We will keep looking to state safety grants for more funding.”
The superintendent said that every time a situation like this occurs, it changes school procedures. Students can expect more random metal detectors at every entrance on campus.
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