GRANVILLE COUNTY, N.C. — There’s growing debate in North Carolina, and beyond, about the best ways to keep kids safe in schools. For at least nine school districts, part of the solution involves installing metal and weapon detectors in schools.
With a rising number of threats and guns found on school campuses across the region, more districts are pursuing weapon and metal detectors in schools.
Granville County Public Schools recently voted to approve use of metal detectors in all 16 of its schools. The high schools have been using them for years, but they’re a newer addition to the middle and elementary schools.
Associate superintendent Stan Winborne says they sent out a public survey to parents and families in their district before moving forward with the plan and received overwhelmingly positive support for metal detectors.
“I think if you had asked our parents a year ago how they might feel about having metal detectors in our elementary schools, you might get a different answer,” Winborne said. “But, given all that's happened nationally with violence in our schools, I think families want that extra layer of protection more than ever."
As of April 6, the K-12 School Shooting Database is reporting 102 cases where a gun was pulled out or fired or a bullet hit school property.
The public database has been tracking the data since 1970, showcasing a large increase in firearm-related incidents in recent years.
Deputy Eddie Winesett, the student resource officer for both Butner-Stem Middle and Elementary Schools, said they utilize their metal detectors on different days of the week, pulling visitors and students at random for testing.
“It lets the kids know that we’re serious about keeping them safe and protecting them,” Winesett said. “Now, with the uncertainty of when we’re going to do this and if you might be the child that we pick out, then it kind of eliminates maybe the thoughts that they may consider bringing anything.”
Since installing the technology several years ago in Granville County high schools, Winborne says they’ve detected several pocketknives being brought into schools.
Parents like Trina Ellis say the technology brings a sense of peace.
“The way things are going, it’s actually a good thing,” Ellis said. “It makes me feel better when I send my daughter to school that there is extra protection in place.”
Father Carlos Giovanni Inestrosa said, “The truth is, it's very good for safety, for all the kids who feel safer. It's nice. It's perfect.”
Opponents of the technology say metal detectors come at too high of a cost and can create a prison-like feeling in schools.
Michael Dorn, the executive director of Safe Havens International, a K-12 school safety nonprofit, says metal detectors are not only expensive, but are less effective at preventing violence than other measures.
“We're the world's largest K-12 school safety center. We've worked in 24 countries. We've completed school safety, security, climate, culture and emergency preparedness assignments for over 9,000 K-12 schools across the U.S. and overseas,” Dorn said.
Part of their work includes penetration tests on K-12 schools to see how secure they are from people bringing in weapons.
“We have never had a K-12 school system client that we couldn't demonstrate that we were able to get multiple weapons into their buildings,” Dorn said. “It's generally just not going to be anywhere near as effective as most people say.”
Instead, Dorn says they find behavioral methods to be more successful, including staff training on visual weapons screening, suicide prevention and threat assessment processes.
The nonprofit provides free training videos on its website, teaching concepts that boast to dramatically improve student supervision.
The N.C. school districts that have voted to move forward with metal or weapon detection technology as of April 6 include:
- Granville County
- Johnston County
- Hickory Public Schools
- Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools
- Guilford County
- Vance County
- Person County
- Halifax County
- Nash County Public Schools