CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Mecklenburg Schools announced on Wednesday new safety measures for staff and students for the upcoming school year.

• According to Superintendent Earnest Winston, a crisis-alert system with a beacon light alert will be implemented at all high school campuses
• In addition to bringing narcotics detection K-9 officer to help conduct the classroom searches, CMS Police also plan to deploy their new firearms detection K9
• Other safety initiatives schools will have when classes return, include enhanced video surveillance, upgraded locks and digital access controls for main entries

According to Superintendent Earnest Winston, a crisis-alert system with a beacon light alert will be implemented at all high school campuses.

Each staff member will have a panic card that allows them to trigger the system by pressing a button.

The system sends school-wide alerts for lockdowns, evacuations, severe weather and emergency medical notifications.

The district plans to add this system to middle and elementary school campuses in the future.

CMS Police Chief Laura Mangum said random safety screenings of classrooms will continue at high schools this school year.

In addition to bringing narcotics detection K-9 officer to help conduct the classroom searches, CMS Police also plan to deploy their new firearms detection K9.

Mangum said the German shepherd can detect the odor of gun powder, ammunition, and burnt gun powder.

She said they believe CMS is the first school district to have a firearms detection dog in the nation.

“We’ve shown that we’ve been successful at doing narcotics searches. Based on the incidents in our school system, we felt it was necessary that we go take ourselves to another level, which is conducting these searches within the schools,” Mangum said.

According to Mangum, during the summer session, the school used metal detectors during random classroom searches. They plan to continue implementing this practice throughout the school year.

Other safety initiatives schools will have when classes return, include enhanced video surveillance, upgraded locks and digital access controls for main entries.

Thanks to Mecklenburg County Commissioners, sixty counselors, psychologists and social workers have also been added to the district, according to Winston.

In spite of these improvements, Winston reminds the community, the district can’t do the work alone.  

“Our students and staff’s safety and security is dependent upon all of us. Inside the classrooms, on all of our campuses, in our homes, in our neighborhoods safety and security is everyone’s responsibility,” Winston said.

He also emphasized that all CMS employees must pass a rigorous background check, which includes fingerprinting, before being hired.

All employees hired while fingerprinting was stopped will be required to go through that process. Thus far, more than 1,700 of them have done it.

“There was a pause with fingerprinting and we want to make sure as it is part of our board policies. We want to make sure we are following board policies so we want to make sure that all of our employees receive fingerprinting,” Winston said.

The first day of school at CMS is August 26.