Campus layout of North Meck makes it easier for guns to get into school, CMS leaders say
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Huntersville Police say a student has been arrested as a juvenile for bringing a loaded, stolen gun inside North Mecklenburg High School.
Police say a secure custody order has been issued for that student.
Officials say what happened at North Meck is part of a larger issue they’re working to address. Charlotte-Mecklenburg School leaders do not believe the student who had the gun went through a body scanner.
“I’m a teacher, I’ve been in those schools. I know what it’s like to have something like that happen,” said Melissa Easley, a CMS Board member who represents the northern part of the county. “It really hurts because you don’t know what could have happened.”
CMS leaders do not believe the student went through an entrance where there is a body scanner that would’ve likely identified the firearm.
The problem at North Meck is there are multiple entrances and buildings on the 72-year-old campus, and body scanners aren’t at every door.
“It’s always a heartbreaking situation, we want our children to be safe,” said Easley.
While school leaders say they’re working to figure out where and when the student got in with the weapon Tuesday, they know that better security is coming with a new building that will be built on the existing campus as part of a $2.5 billion bond passed by voters in November.
“That money that goes through our bonds will allow the new building at North Meck to have one entrance or one or two entrances that are a lot easier to monitor and control and see who’s coming in and out of it versus five, 10, 15 entrances that some of these open campus schools have,” said Easley.
North Meck is one of several schools with this type of layout that leaders say will get changed with new school construction.
“They were all built around various decades, around that time and had that college feel, which was the intent back then, but we know life has changed since then,” said Easley.
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CMS has seen about an 80 percent drop in guns on its campuses since the 2021-22 school year when the district had more guns on campus than any other school district in North Carolina.
The district credits the implementation of body scanners and the anonymous reporting system, the “See Something, Say Something” app, for the decrease.
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