< Back to Previous Page Program Meant For Stopping School Violence in North Carolina Raleigh - Gov. Mike Easley announced today results of his statewide school safety review. On Oct. 9, Easley asked Secretary Bryan Beatty of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety and Attorney General Roy Cooper to coordinate a comprehensive review of North Carolina’s school safety programs and offer proposals to enhance school security. “School administrators, law enforcement officials and emergency responders are working closely together in most parts of the state on school safety issues but there are always areas where we can improve,” said Easley. “This review has given us a clearer picture of what we are doing well and what we need to work on to keep North Carolina’s schools safe and secure places for our children to learn. Every parent in North Carolina should know that when they drop their child off in the morning that the state and the schools are doing everything possible to ensure their children’s safety.” North Carolina’s national leadership in the School Resource Officer Program, according to the report, is one of the key efforts that is working to help keep our schools secure. These certified law enforcement officers are permanently assigned to schools providing security, law-related counseling and public-safety related instruction. The effectiveness of this program was evident in August when a gunman opened fire at Orange High School in Hillsborough. The immediate response of the school resource officer and a former state trooper on campus, who apprehended the gunman, prevented a more serious incident. The review recommends expanding the program in high schools and middle schools so there is at least one resource officer for every 1,000 students. There are currently 773 resource officers in the state’s public schools. The recommendation would add 24 resource officers statewide. “We expect schools to both protect our children and prepare them for success,” said Cooper. “Putting more officers in schools and ramping up training for teachers and law enforcement are key steps toward keeping our kids safe. It is critical that we do all we can now to help our schools be ready to respond to a wide range of threats so that we never have to wish we had done more.” The review found that some schools lack basic two-way communications between classrooms and the main office or do not have ways to immediately communicate crisis information to parents. The review recommends law enforcement, technology and school experts convene to examine the need and effectiveness of current technology and to develop recommendations for school districts to acquire the appropriate technology to ensure two-way communication in their schools.  “We found there are many community agencies concerned with school safety and that is good,” said Beatty. “But we need to make sure these agencies are working together and communicating well to coordinate their efforts and planning for all types of emergencies.” According to the review, information sharing is also crucial to preventing school violence. Studies show that in most violent campus incidents suspects tell someone what they are planning. If students, parents and teachers know what to do when they hear of a threat, they are in a better position to help prevent incidents from occurring. North Carolina has been proactive in this area, setting up a toll-free safe schools tip line so students, parents and others can anonymously report threats or suspicious activity at schools. The report recommends increased public awareness of the tip line. That number is 1-888-960-9600. The Center for the Prevention of School Violence, the Board of Education and the State Bureau of Investigation separately collect data on school violence or crimes on campus. The review recommends that the Center and the State Board compile this information into one report so school districts and local law enforcement officials have timely data to develop better safe school plans.   In addition, the review recommends that all school districts have school safety plans in place and are conducting exercises to test those plans. Furthermore, the report recommends new legislation be drafted to require regular drills and exercises for dealing with threats such as school shootings, chemical explosions, severe weather and terrorism incidents. Current law only requires monthly fire drills at schools. It is important that these plans include providing training for faculty, staff and students on how to assist school staff, school resource officers and other emergency responders. Students, who often are in a position to get early hints of potential trouble, need to know how to recognize warning signs of a threat, who to talk to when they spot a troubling situation and be confident they can speak to someone in authority who will be understanding and reassure them that they are doing the right thing to protect others. Other recommendations from the school safety review include: Providing technical assistance from state law enforcement to help schools conduct security assessments of campuses; Identifying key agencies, such as mental health responders, by the Department of Health and Human Services to be dispatched to help cope with emotional and psychological needs of staff and students after a violent incident; Adopting a formal debriefing process by state education, law enforcement and health services agencies to help local school and law enforcement officials improve their response plans. The school safety review was conducted with assistance from the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, the Attorney General’s Office, State Board of Education and Department of Public Instruction, the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Center for the Prevention of School Violence, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of the State Fire Marshal, and Sen. Pete Bland of Craven County and Rep. Joe Kiser of Lincoln County, both former sheriffs.

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