CMS Superintendent, Dr. Clayton Wilcox
Dr. Clayton Wilcox, superintendent at CMS
Building a CMS Circle of Safety for every school
School safety has always
been a top priority at Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Schools – and our
schools remain statistically one of
the safest places for children. All
children need and deserve safe,
welcoming places to learn and all
of us at Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools are committed to
providing those spaces for our
kids.
Many of our students depend
on schools for even more:
meals, adult support that adds
to parent/family supports, social
and athletic events. Our schools
are communities that offer kids
services and support inside and
outside the classroom.
Ultimately, the most effective
solutions to violence and weapons
in our schools will come from
building relationships, creating trust and accountability in our schools and in
our community as a whole. We must find ways to connect better with each
other across lines of difference, to restore a stronger sense of community and
to address the root causes – the despair, fear and isolation -- of violence in our
schools.
However, the fatal shooting of one student by another in October at Butler
High School has led us to increase our level of precautions to keep weapons out
of schools. We must work together as a community. As Butler Principal John
Legrand said after the shooting, “We are in this together,” said Legrand. “We will
move forward together.”
Working together, we can ensure that our schools are safe. The new
protections will be added to those in place to maintain our Circle of Safety:
LobbyGuard visitor screening, 24/7 video monitoring at all campuses, school
resource officers assigned to our middle and high schools, lockdown drills,
active-survival training and social-media monitoring.
However, keeping schools safe takes more than this. We must work
together – educators, parents, students and the community. Weapons and
violence in schools isn’t just a school problem. It’s a community problem. As a
community, we need to address the serious challenges in the way we support
families. We need to lift up our young people and open doors of opportunity.
We can strengthen the support we offer our children, providing social and
emotional learning as well as academic opportunity.
That support begins at home. I urge all families to talk to their children
about making good decisions. If your students see something that worries
them, encourage them to talk to a teacher, a counselor or someone else at
the school. National experts agree that social and mental health support
for students are among the most powerful tools we have to create safe
environments.
Since the 1990s, school districts across the country have emphasized the
importance of maintaining school safety. And we’ve made real progress. A 2016
report by the National Center for Education Statistics found that between 1993
and 2015, the percentage of high school students who reported carrying a
weapon onto school grounds in the last 30 days decreased from 12 percent to
four percent.
Continuing this effort, CMS is introducing a series of measures to help
further reduce violence and the number of weapons being brought to school by
students and to help keep CMS campuses safe.
We have consulted with law enforcement, conducted internal reviews and
considered ideas and best practices from other districts. We also talked to our
students. Their ideas and thoughts are included in our decisions.
2 • January/February2019 • Parent Teacher Magazine
Our new security measures are a mix of safety enhancements, technology,
procedures and communication actions. Starting after the winter break, we will
begin conducting portable security-wand screenings at high schools, as well as
backpack and bag searches.
These checks will be conducted by trained security personnel and conducted
without prior announcement. Schools will be chosen at random because we
believe the element of surprise is part of the deterrence factor.
In addition to camera-monitoring upgrades already announced in October,
we are expanding systems to include all mobile classrooms on each campus
with focus on highest-traffic areas.
We will work to enable instant emergency notification by individual staff
members in high schools. We will also install an electronic keyless-entry
access system on every front door and every remote building’s primary entry
point, and increase monitoring of access to athletic fields, auxiliary buildings,
maintenance and other vehicle entry points.
We will work with each school’s staff to review and enhance all school
safety plans, entry and access procedures, including emergency procedures,
crisis teams, communications and incident reporting. To widen the reach of this,
we are also producing a lockdown video and active survival training video in
partnership with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. The video will
be distributed to all CMS students, families and staff. We will add social media
monitoring resources, platforms and procedures for threat assessment and
early warning.
We are also strengthening crisis communications for more frequent updates
and wider messaging to families, including instant text messaging. Parents
should know this may impact their data plans, but we think it’s worth it. I want
to ask parents to update and make sure their contact information on file with
their children’s schools is current. This will ensure that we can reach parents
quickly if the need arises.
We will be sharing this information and gathering in a series of community
town halls around the county. We’ve also launched a new CMS Safety webpage
with resources and information on the CMS website.
The best way to prevent violence in schools is to address the social and
emotional issues that can lead our kids into danger. We will continue to increase
our investments in counselors and other social, emotional and mental health
supports for students; this year, we have added 60 counseling positions.
Our schools remain among the safest places for a child to be. Keeping them
that way is a responsibility shared by all of us. Let’s all work together to protect
our kids.
CMS announces new school safety measures
‘The entire community must be a part of keeping weapons
out of our schools,’ superintendent says
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is increasing security measures,
including random wanding of students and searches of backpacks, to
help keep weapons out of schools. The district announced the new
safety protocols Nov. 16, and called for community support in keeping
schools safe.
The new measures are in addition to a network of existing
protections in the district’s Circle of Safety, including LobbyGuard visitor
screening, 24/7 camera monitoring on all campuses, School Resource
Officers in high and middle schools, lockdown drills and active-survivor
training. See more information on the CMS Safety page accessible from
the district home page.
“This is not just a school problem – it’s a community problem,” Dr.
Clayton Wilcox, superintendent, said at a media briefing. “We are taking
action to keep weapons out of schools because we want all students to
have safe, secure environments that promote academic growth. Our
focus in schools should be on education.”
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