Sheriff talks schools security
By Steve Herring
Published in News on February 22, 2018 5:50 AM
News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Wayne County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore, seated between board of education member Raymond Smith Jr. and chair Patricia Burden, listens along with county commissioner Bill Pate during a joint meeting of the Wayne County Board of Education and Board of Commissioners Wednesday afternoon in the 4-H room of the new Maxwell Center.
Anyone who sees a threat against a school on social media needs to call law enforcement or school officials instead of adding to the threat by reposting it, Wayne County Sheriff Larry Pierce said.
"We have a lot that blew up from one post that went to a number of repostings," Pierce told Wayne County commissioners during their Tuesday morning session. "I know some of them got blown out of proportion on the reposting."
Pierce was referring to a social media posting that threatened a shooting at Southern Wayne High School, but no credible threat was found, he said.
However, Pierce said his office doubled up on deputies in the schools Tuesday morning bringing in off-duty and part-time deputies.
As of Monday deputies had run down a number of social media threats or potential threats of violence.
"Nothing creditable was confirmed, but we did run down every lead we were given," Pierce said. "We ask the media, if they hear anything, we ask the public if they hear anything through social media, let us know.
"We will run it down. We will actively pursue them. We are looking into all threats and potential threats."
Pierce said he met with schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore and his staff on Monday to come up with a plan to do things in order to hopefully better secure schools.
"We don't have anybody thinking about arming the school teachers here in Wayne County do we," Commissioner John Bell said.
That has not yet been discussed, Pierce said.
"The reason that I pose the question is because I known what law enforcement is going to do when they run into a school and somebody runs out with a gun in their hand -- they are going to shoot them," Bell said. "They are not going to have time to think about whether or not it is a teacher or somebody."
Arming teachers would be a big mistake, he said.
If arming teachers is discussed, the county would need to look into a "lot of parameters," Pierce said.
Commissioners and the school board need to address school safety as soon as possible, Commissioner Ray Mayo said.
"We've got a lot to do," Mayo said. "Our hearts are burdened and our prayers go out to the victims and families of this week's shooting in Florida."
It almost appears that society is accepting the shooting as being a "normal" way of lief to a certain degree, he said.
"We have talked about more school security personnel," he said. "We have talked cameras. We have talked about metal detectors along with many other suggestions.
"But, we haven't done anything yet."
Look around the county to see what private businesses and industries have done to bolster security, he said.
Fences and electronic gates have been erected, he said.
Mayo said he is not saying that is the route that needs to be taken with the schools.
Until something happens on the federal level, the county needs to protect the schools on the scene, Mayo said.
"We need to protect the campus because it could take years and decades for anything to happen from the congressional level," Mayo said. "We are responsible for the safety of the students and all of our schools and public places."
Seymour Johnson Air Force Base is different, but look at the security there and at the Wayne County jail and then compare that to school security, he said.
Students cannot concentrate when they do not feel safe, he said. Also, teachers cannot teach effectively if they do not feel safe, he said.
"We need to address this issue before we are one of the victims," Mayo said. "Is it time for us to be more concerned about school safety rather than the classroom size?"
Commissioner Ed Cromartie said he had been reluctant to say anything abut the shooting and thanked Mayo for broaching the issue.
"We want to skirt the issue because so many folks feel like it is too sensitive to bring up," he said.
Society can put up all the fences and gates that it wants to, but things will change until society decides it needs to do something about high-powered weapons in the hands of people that society likes to refer to as deranged, he said.
There is a difference between weapons such as a .22 caliber and a much larger round used by high-power weapons that can do more damage, he said.
"I listened to those children describing how people were on top of them bleeding out, faces were blow off," Cromartie said. Mr. Mayo, we as a nation, we need to take a strong positions about the opportunity for high-powered weapons and children.
"We pray that nothing like that happens in Wayne County. Right now 90 percent of my family is in a school building in Wayne County -- children and adults in my family. So 90 percent of my family could stand a chance to be harmed."
Cromartie said he knows they could be harmed as well just walking down a street, but that the board was talking about schools.
He asked residents to contact their legislators about the issue.
The shootings talks about society because guns have been around a very long time and people have not always shot up places, Commissioner Bill Pate said.
"My heart goes out to those people," Pate said. "I truly believe it goes back to home life because people doing these things are typically from broken homes."