ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, N.C. — At the same time as children in Rockingham County are getting ready to return to school, officials from the school district, police enforcement, and district leaders were in the classroom learning about new and innovative ways that the district will ensure the safety of students throughout the upcoming school year.
Staff met at Rockingham County High School Thursday for the Rockingham County School Safety Summit.
District officials said the summit was all about preparedness and education for their school staff and safety officials.
A statement made by Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page emphasized the need of communication in the process of protecting youngsters. The summit, according to him, offers just this kind of opportunity.
At the beginning of the year, he stated, “We just want to make sure that everybody has a great start and a great finish throughout the year.”
Teachers were trained in many areas, such as how to calm down a fight, stop sexual attack, and give Narcan, a drug that is often used to treat drug overdoses.
Sean Gladieux, who is in charge of school safety for Rockingham County Schools, said that school staff also learned about the new safety tools that the district is putting in schools across the county.
“Anything you can think of, from building security to surveillance cameras to vape detectors to our AEDs,” he said.
Weapons detection systems are on the list of new safety gear. These are meant to find threats like guns and knives every day when kids enter the building.
Gladieux said that they are not waiting for a threat to move. In Rockingham County, these new systems have been put in every middle school and high school.
He said, “As a community and as a school district, we felt we had to do everything we could to protect our students, their families, visitors, and fans.”
In the end, both school and city officials agree that these new steps are very important to keep threats to schools at bay.
Rockingham County kids start school for the first time on August 26.