CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) says they will begin implementing random safety screenings at middle schools in February, in addition to the random screenings already employed at local high schools.
In a letter to CMS families, administrators say the middle school and K-8 school screenings will be used as a precautionary measure to help keep drugs and weapons out of schools. According to CMS, from the beginning of the 2019-2020 and the winter break, 24 high schools were randomly selected for safety screenings and no lethal weapons were found.
CMS sent the following letter to student families:
“As you may be aware, last year Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) developed our Circle of Safety as a way to highlight and talk about the many safety and security measures CMS has in place at the individual, school, district and community levels. As part of the Circle of Safety, the CMS Police Department (CMSPD) successfully implemented a safety screening process in randomly selected high schools during the winter, spring and summer of school year 2018-2019. The purpose of the safety screenings was to serve as a deterrent for students bringing drugs or weapons to school or onto school property. Between the beginning of school year 2019-2020 and the recent winter break, CMSPD again conducted safety screenings in all of our high schools, with the order of schools again randomly selected. In screening students and belongings in 24 schools this year, no lethal weapons were found.
We wanted to notify you that safety screenings in our middle schools and in the middle school grades of our K-8 schools will begin in February, while we continue to conduct high school screenings. Schools will again be selected at random.
As a reminder, our safety screening process includes students being moved to a location outside the classroom to proceed through a metal detector. During this time the drug detection K9 and firearm detection K9 are brought into the classroom by their handlers to screen the students’ belongings. A team of CMS Security Associates, CMS Police Department K9 handlers and the CMSPD Chief conduct and oversee each screening, with assistance from building administrators. Families are notified via ConnectEd messages when a safety screening begins and again when it is completed.
To help keep students, staff and everyone connected to our schools safe, CMS has a comprehensive set of measures in place. Safety screenings to help keep weapons and drugs out of our schools have been added to these measures as a deterrent and precautionary step. Our goals are to keep weapons and drugs out of schools and to minimize class time disruption and distractions from teaching and learning during screenings. Two important things to note about safety screenings at CMS: schools are selected at random but individual students are never identified for screening. In addition, the K9s are never in contact with students. The students are removed to a separate location while the dogs and their handlers conduct their screening.”
