Wake County school resource officers will be exploring different ways to improve school safety ahead of the start of the traditional calendar year.
School is back in session for traditional students in Wake County on Aug. 24. As kids get ready to return to class, SROs and school leaders are hosting a summit on Tuesday morning at Millbrook Magnet High School to review new safety strategies.
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The summit will include a tabletop exercise that will allow SROs to explore responses to different crisis scenarios. The district will provide an update on the summit at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
A key topic at Tuesday’s summit will be the district’s new standard response protocol during emergencies. This new procedure is designed to ensure law enforcement and school staff are using the same language during emergencies.
“It’s about making sure there’s a common way to identify everything that happens, both with law enforcement that’s outside the school but also the school population to recognize what kind of emergencies are taking place,” said Wake County Schools Superintendent Robert Taylor. “It’s an opportunity to take some of the anxiety out of certain kinds of emergencies.”
The protocol includes the following action steps: hold, secure, lockdown, evacuate and shelter.
Hold: In your classroom or area. – Students should clear hallways and remain in their areas until the “all clear” is announced, staff will lock doors and continue working as usual.
Secure: Get inside. Lock outside doors. – Students should return inside the building, continue business as usual. Staff will lock outside doors, increase awareness and continue working as usual.
Lockdown: Locks, lights, out of sight. – Students should move away from sight, remain silent and do not open any doors. Staff will turn off lights, lock doors, move away from sight, maintain silence and prepare to evade or defend.
Evacuate: To a location – Students should leave belongings, bring their phones if possible and follow all instructions. Staff will bring a roll sheet and a go bag and lead students to evacuation locations.
Shelter: State hazard and safety strategy – Hazards include tornado, hazmat, earthquake and tsunami responses. Safety strategies include evacuation, sealing the room, drop, cover and hold, get to higher ground. Staff is trained in Appropriate Hazards and Safety Strategies and accounting for students and adults.
Wake students feel safe, but want improvements
A new survey showed most Wake County students feel safe in school but found several things schools can do to ensure their safety.
Students said the top ways to enhance security are staff monitoring of hallways and other shared spaces and ensuring external and classroom doors are always locked. They largely want existing measures to be strengthened. They also highlighted bathrooms as areas that don’t always feel safe and need improvement.
Wake County surveyed students as it continues to implement different safety measures in schools and weigh future options. Safety measures have largely concerned visitor management and emergency response.
About 46% of students said bathrooms need safety improvements, far higher than the school locations that received the second-most votes: Outside on school grounds and the cafeteria, which both received votes from 16% of students.
The district hasn’t implemented one measure that’s grown significantly in popularity: artificial intelligence-powered weapons detectors for secondary school entryways. About 23% of students said they believed those would enhance their safety.
Wake has grappled with instances of students bringing weapons on campus, often reported to authorities by other students. In 2023, one high school student stabbed and killed another during a fight in the school’s cafeteria.
The survey was for high school students only, and nearly half — about 23,000 students — responded.
About 82% of the students said they generally feel safe at school.
It’s the first time the district has done the survey, and leaders think they can talk more about it at the beginning of the school year. The survey was conducted in the winter, after students had been at their schools for at least a few months. District leaders asked principals to encourage teachers to give students time to complete the surveys during class.
