LAURINBURG — Some educators are questioning the idea that they might be asked to carry guns in the classroom.
The idea of armed teachers was one of several that came up during a school safety forum held this week at the board of education office. More than 40 people — from superintendents, principals, mental health workers, as well as Hoke County deputies and Laurinburg police — participated in the forum to discuss what is being done to protect local schools.
State Rep. Garland Pierce of Scotland County was recently named to the House Select Committee on School Safety and has been tasked with reporting back to the governor safety initiatives that are being enacted throughout his region. He also attended the forum.
I want to thank the leaders of the two school system for convening that meeting at my request so that i might have value information to share with our committee,” Pierce said. “That group had some great ideas that the state could really use.”
But Pierce said that the overwhelming majority of those present were opposed to armed teachers.
“The one thing that I did take away from the forum was that teachers don’t want to have guns in the classroom,” he said. “They feel that their job is to educate, not to be on guard duty.”
Armed teachers
Several educators and law enforcement officials voiced that concern during the three-hour forum.
“How can we make children feel like they can trust us when we’re carrying a gun?” said one teacher. “They’re more likely to see us as someone to be afraid of.”
Another educator asked about the feasibility of having armed teachers.
“I don’t want to know that there are teachers in my building that may or may not be carrying because just like regular human beings, teachers face everyday challenges and it’s a high stress job,” she said.
In the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., last month, President Donald Trump and others have called for arming teachers as a protective and preventive measure against school shootings.
But Roy Downing, a lieutenant for the Hoke County Sheriff’s Office, said a training protocol would have to be established for educators that did choose to carry a firearm.
“There is not enough training y’all (the police) go through and teachers already have enough on their plate,” said Downing. “Just because someone wants to be armed doesn’t mean they should be.”
Jamie Synan, the director of student services for Scotland County Schools, feels the answer is in funding for mental health to prevent students from reaching a point where they feel violence is the only answer.
“There’s a need in mental health funding in schools, that’s one of the components to combat these mass shootings,” said Synan. “If you are going and shooting someone there’s a mental health issue there that needs to be addressed and it’s not being addressed.”
Laurinburg Police Chief Darwin “Duke” Williams said the conversation on arming teachers would likely be brought up at the state level, but it was important that the educators concerns were priority in those conversations.
“We’re looking to make Scotland County and Hoke County school districts the safest in the state,” Williams said.
Safety first
During a recent Committee of the Whole meeting, the Scotland County Board of Education discussed safety measures the district currently has in place and plans to add metal detectors and upgrade security camera systems.
The district pays for five school resource officers (SROs) — three from sheriff’s office and two from the Laurinburg Police Department.
“We are one of the very few counties in our region that have SROs in elementary schools,” said Larry Johnson, assistant superintendent of auxiliary services.
There are video surveillance cameras covering the entire campus at Scotland High School, and the board is considering updating the camera systems at the middle and elementary schools as part of their capital project list for 2018-19.
“The good thing about the camera system at the high school is we can follow someone almost anywhere on campus,” said Johnson. “We can go from camera to camera. We don’t have that at the middle and elementary schools it’s more of a still camera covering one area.”
Johnson told the board it would cost roughly $80,000 each to outfit Carver and Spring Hill with new security camera systems similar to the one at the high school.
The board also asked about installing additional metal detectors at the schools and filtering students through them each morning before they are permitted to enter the building.
“We’ve ordered two at Shaw Academy, one at the front and one in the back for when students get off the bus,” said Johnson. “I would like to order four at the high school but we would have to hire additional staff to monitor. It’s going to take you 15-20 additional minutes to get those students inside the building — everyday.”
“I think it’s worth 10 minutes,” said board member Rick Singletary.
