Cleveland County schools to add metal detectors

Ken Lemon
·2 min read
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Parents of Cleveland County students may notice a new security protocol this year.

Similar to Hickory Public Schools, Cleveland County Schools will be introducing metal detectors, following their approval by the school board.

Kings Mountain High School was the first school in the district to have the new metal detector. Although there are people who like the new security measures, students like twin brothers Dikwan and Dikan Tate were skeptical on their first day.

“Like it’s a prison, but it’s school,” Dikan Tate said. “Now you get off the bus, get your wand down, and go through the metal detector.”

While there were complaints about the detectors, the majority of them didn’t last long. Many students at Cleveland County Schools have grown up around school shootings, seeing the media coverage, empty classrooms, and memorials to those lost in the tragedy.

ALSO READ: CMS gets $2.8M grant to bolster safety in schools

“At first, I guess being young, I was like ‘What for?”, student Tamar Montgomery said, “but with what’s going on at a lot of schools right now, like Texas and California,”

Now that these detectors are a welcomed sight on campus and fairly easy for students to use, they don’t even have to have their bags searched. A video from the manufacturing company shows the detectors in two columns, meaning they can easily be moved to football games and other campus events.

Their ability to move is one of the reasons that caused the school board to approve them unanimously. The board was able to purchase two detectors for each of the county’s four high schools for $151,000.

“I actually like the fact that they brought it up, just to save the school,” Montgomery said.

Dikwan Tate said he’s heard threats against the school over the years but is hoping the metal detectors will deter other students from bringing weapons onto campus.

The school board says they will have extra grant money coming in this fall and are considering buying more detectors.

(WATCH BELOW: Metal detectors to be added to all Hickory Public Schools)