CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Earnest Winston detailed the districts’ plans to make schools safer at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting.
The plans include clear backpacks, body scanners, additional security guards, random security screenings and more.
Winston outlined which students will get to test out new clear backpacks first. The district spent nearly half a million dollars on 46,000 clear backpacks.
Students at Cochrane Collegiate Academy and Hopewell High School will pilot the clear backpack program first before it rolls out to other schools.
“Students would like to actually touch and feel and see what the clear backpacks look like,” Winston said. "And so we will be deploying several backpacks to every high school so that students can have an opportunity to experience what the backpacks actually look like and feel like.”
Winston said the district is also in the process of purchasing body scanners that will be implemented in seven schools in the first phase. Those schools include Hopewell, Mallard Creek, Garinger, Harding, North Meck, West Charlotte, and Julius Chambers.
In January, CMS launched the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System allowing middle and high school students to report concerns anonymously when they hear or see something at their school.
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“We’ve had a successful implementation of that,” Winston said. "And so far we’ve received about 500 tips from our middle and high school students following that launch.”
The new safety measures come after several guns were found on CMS campuses this school year.
Winston said the district has continued its random safety screenings in middle and high schools, and out of about 60 screenings so far this year, no firearms have been found. However, Winston said vapes, tasers, over-the-counter prescription medications, and pepper spray have been found.
Winston said the district has also started the process to hire 53 campus security associates
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