Winston

Jonathan Wilson, the school district’s chief safety, security and emergency management officer, demonstrates how the school system’s portable metal detectors react when they come in contact with metal.

Middle school students in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools can expect to see random metal-detector screenings this year.

In the past few years, metal detectors in middle schools were used at large events, such as athletic games or concerts, or if school and district leaders learned of a possible threat to school safety.

“It’s important we return students to their families at the end of the school day the same way we receive those kids each and every day. And we take that job very seriously,” said Jonathan Wilson, the school district’s chief safety, security and emergency management officer.

Wilson outlined some of the changes to the school district’s safety and security plan at a news conference on Monday at Southeast Middle School. About 54,000 students will return to school for the 2023-24 school year next Monday.

The school district confiscated six guns during the last school year. Of those, two were confiscated at middle schools.

Random screenings will continue in the district’s high schools.

The school district now has 167 walk-through metal detectors for use at its middle and high schools, Wilson said. Of those, 73 were funded with a grant from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. The school board voted last spring to spend $307,230 in unused local dollars for an additional 94 metal detectors, which arrived over the summer. The addition of those metal detectors will allow the district to step up their random use.

Wilson said he is opposed to using walk-through metal detectors in elementary schools. Each elementary school has a wand that school leaders may use if they suspect a student has a weapon, he said.

He said earlier this year that he is against using metal detectors at middle or high schools every day.

Stephanie Gentry, the principal at Southeast Middle said some members of her staff are familiar with how to screen students, having used them at sporting events last year.

“We were very transparent with families, spectators and students on how they operated, what could and couldn’t come in,” Gentry said. “And we got a very positive response. Our families were very appreciative.”

Gentry said she spent part of Monday morning talking with her staff about the plan for random screenings on Monday.

The school district will decide which schools are up for a random check so that it crosses all geographic locations, Wilson said.

In addition to the metal detectors, the school district has added two campus security managers, which are new positions. The directors will oversee school-specific safety plans, Wilson said.

The school district is also issuing 10,000 new badges to school employees that will allow them access into schools and added 172 grant-funded cameras in elementary schools over the summer, giving the district more than 2,600 cameras that can provide 5,100 views.

“There are not many places on a school campus that you can go where you can’t see what’s going on,” Wilson said.

Some of the security enhancements came about because of the availability of money. The 2016 bond referendum that voters approved included $3.5 million for security.

Other measures were taken as a response to events happening in the community, Wilson said.

“We’ve seen throughout our community an increase in violence and an increase in weapons in the hands of juveniles. Are these decisions made as a result of this? Yeah, it is but not because of one particular event but what’s happening in the community tends to spill into schools,” he said. “So we need to do our part to make sure we add these things.”

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