CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools announced Wednesday that no weapons were found during a second run of random security screenings.
District officials started the random searches Tuesday at Garinger and Rocky River high schools. On Wednesday, Harding University and Mallard Creek were screened, and again, no weapons were found. The searches took place at all four schools between 7:15 and 8:15 a.m. Four classrooms were screened at each school.
District Superintendent Dr. Clayton Wilcox says he attended the screening done at Garinger.
"I saw students who understood why we were there," Dr. Wilcox said. "They were gracious, they were thoughtful, there was no disruption. Several of the kids said they knew this was coming. They stood up in boy/girl lines, they allowed us to look deep into their backpacks and they were wanded in front, back and side of their bodies."
Dr. Wilcox says he’s happy to report no weapons were found at either campus, and he applauds everyone involved in the process -- especially the students.
“This is in many ways kind of a gross indignity that we are subjecting them to, but the young people understood, and the young people cooperated, and I wanted to say thank you to them,” he said.
On Monday, CMS demonstrated how the high schools would be randomly selected for the security screenings.
The names of all 19 high schools were placed into separate envelopes, sealed, and dropped into a bucket. Eight envelopes were then randomly drawn by a member of the faith community.
CMS says they opened all eight envelopes Tuesday morning in the presence of CMS police as well as the district’s ombudsman, Earnest Winston and decided to conduct screenings at the first two unannounced.
They say they’ll continue to go down the list of the six remaining schools, but will not announce locations in advance.
CMS says the type of screening they do at each school will vary, saying they have three different screening methods. They'll screen an entire class, an entire building or an entire school -- but will never screen individual students at random.
Officials say they intend to include faith representatives at as many screenings as possible. These screenings are all part of an immediate action plan taken by the district to keep guns out of schools.
The new screenings come after multiple guns were found on CMS campuses, and three months after a shooting at Butler High left one student dead.
Not only is the school district working to keep students from bringing guns onto campus, but in the event of active shooter the district, the district is providing survival training to teachers.
"We have dozens of schools that have already participated, dozens more lined up, our goal is to have all of the schools complete by the end of the year,” said Tracy Russ, CMS communications director.