CARTHAGE – In light of the recent shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia as well as due to an influx of community concerns, the Moore County Schools Board of Education was provided with a high-level overview of the safety and security measures that are in place in the district at their Sept. 10 regular business meeting.
“Over the years, we’ve had a distinct focus on building and improving safety and security in Moore County Schools,” said Superintendent Tim Locklair. “That includes the systems, processes and practices, but also the resources and relationships we’ve built in the community to employ here in Moore County Schools.”
Some of the safety and security measures Locklair pointed out were the dispersal of safety and medical equipment in all classrooms and schools throughout the district, the Active Defender app which alerts central office and police immediately to an emergency on campus, new district-wide visitor management system, mini towers on campuses without reliable cell phone service to ensure guaranteed service for police and first responders and improved video surveillance and entryway technology.
“Safety and security is the number one priority that we have to bring to our jobs each and every day,” Locklair said. “When we have safe schools, when we have caring schools, when we have orderly schools, kids can learn. That has to continue to be our top priority.”
Moore County Schools is also one of only two school districts that employ their own police force.
“I’m very proud and we’re very fortunate in Moore County Schools to have our own police force,” Locklair said. “Certainly that is a great advantage to us to have our own officers who know our students.”
According to Locklair, the MCS Police have an officer assigned at every middle and high school and they’re each equipped with a sidearm, rifle, taser, bleed-control kit, narcan, shields and door breaching kits.
The goal is to have an officer for each school in the district, but Locklair expressed how the district has had difficulty with recruiting due to state law requiring school-based officers to have at least one year of police experience in North Carolina, thereby excluding those with exclusively experience either out-of-state or within the military.
“We’ve certainly pushed to hire as many police officers as possible, but we need 11 more to be fully staffed in Moore County Schools,” Locklair said. “We continue to aggressively recruit, reach out and run campaigns on that.”
However, board member David Hensley was adamant that the board should be even more proactive in the district’s pursuit of safety.
“It is an unfortunate reality that if there’s an active shooter event in Moore County, the probability is that it’s going to occur in a school,” said board member David Hensley. “So we have to have the best trained and the best equipped school resource officers. Their primary responsibility is the safety and security of our faculty, staff and students. They have to be ready to respond at a moment’s notice, alone, for an active shooter and then as follow-on officers show up, be prepared to be a part of that team. I think we as a board have taken half steps toward that.”
In conjunction with the safety briefing, the board also approved the purchase of 12 OPENGATE Weapon Detection Systems.
“We’re currently operating with the metal detectors that we have available to our school police at events and activities,” Locklair said. “This is the next generation of that. These systems will provide us the ability to have a much more efficient way of checking folks for weapons when they’re coming in and out of our schools whether it be our students or folks attending events.”
The Moore County Schools Board of Education will next meet Oct. 15.
