School safety top of mind for Wake County Schools

CARY, N.C. (WTVD) -- Wake County Public Schools met for the first time Tuesday after a slew of lockdowns in the district last week.

"This is an issue we must all come together on," said Tyler Swanson, who represents District 9.

District 1 Board Member Cheryl Caulfield agreed.

"This crisis we're in is not something our friends and children had asked for, but it's something we need help with," she said.

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Russ Smith is the senior director of the security department at Wake County Schools.

"There's no one specific answer that's going to make our campuses safer," he said. "We have to work together."

Smith stressed that parents need to talk to their children more for starters. He said if you have a firearm, it's crucial that you secure it properly so children can't access them.

He presented to the board earlier Tuesday where he laid out more specifics about the district's ongoing security assessment.

One thing coming in the fall is a district-wide system to check visitors before they enter a school building.

They are also exploring ways for anonymous tips to be reported through an app vs.a phone line.

"All of these social media rumors and postings cause us to have to respond and we respond to all of them," Smith said. "Every security measure out there is still on the table."

On Tuesday, ABC11 watched a presentation from the county's security team. In it, we learned an assessment has been done at all but 18 schools within the district. Those 18 schools haven't been examined because they are either new or in a different space now than when an independent team came in.

The assessment looked at all aspects of physical security from how schools screens and manage visitors, to open and closed campuses and SROs.