CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Parents, teachers and administrators are asking the same question after a 16-year-old student was shot and killed in the hallway of Butler High School in Matthews.
“Some have asked me how could someone, especially a student, (can) come on to our campus with a loaded gun, and I wish I had answer to that. There really is no easy answer,” Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said.
There have been suggestions to bolster safety at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools by installing metal detectors.
Last spring, Charlotte Mecklenburg police Chief Kerr Putney suggested the measure to CMS but he had no success.
[Student dies after fight ends in gunfire at Butler HS in Matthews]
“I can assure you that if Clayton Wilcox or anybody on his staff thought metal detectors were the best idea and they passed on it, today they would be regretting it more than anyone we know,” Mecklenburg County Commissioner Jim Puckett said.
Puckett questioned the school district months ago about what it would take to add metal detectors and what it would cost
“We basically asked them to come back with a plan, and that was just one of the things that didn’t make the cut,” Puckett said.
Commissioners approved a $9 million security plan, which included security improvements including electronic locks, panic alarms and more surveillance.
Puckett said the logistics of using metal detectors may not be easy.
“The reality is it’s not like going to the airport where you can arrive an hour-and-a-half early,” Puckett said.
He said it's worth it to try adding the metal detectors.
“I absolutely want it revisited just in case this is something... that may have been able to prevent this particular instance,” Puckett said.
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