Hello everyone!

First off, I’d just like to thank you for supporting this petition! It will mean a great deal to the community if we can make our schools safer for students and teachers.

We are getting the petition shared and out there. Forsyth Local News has released a story about the petition and Channel 2 Action News has been running the story since last night and continues to run it today on both TV and radio!! Unfortunately, I was not available to comment in time, but the important thing is the petition is getting noticed!

I’d like to let you in on my meeting with Todd Shirley, Chief Operations Officer for Forsyth County Schools. He was kind enough to meet with me early in the morning Monday to inform me on their current safety protocols and procedures.

I must say, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that parents and children are probably not aware of. They brought me into the security room where the walls are covered with large TV screens that are constantly changing to different cameras throughout all the schools; they have 3000 cameras throughout the county. If a child were to take off running on camera, that screen then blows up bigger so they can see what’s going on. They also have the ability to not only hear through the cameras, they can speak through them as well. These cameras are monitored throughout the school day.

They also have a Student Advocacy Specialist Program, where they currently have 9 employees who intervene in children’s lives that are at risk of harming someone else or themselves. This year alone they have 1,934 students they are following up with. I believe this is too high of a number for just 9 employees, and Todd Shirley hopes to have 10 or 11 by next year.

There are posters throughout the schools with a tip line where children or teachers can report suspicious behavior anonymously.

I have so much appreciation and respect for the people in charge of our children’s safety in Forsyth County. I hope to work with them in the future to help our schools become more secure.

As we all know, as these efforts help, they are not enough. A loaded gun still entered Little Mill Middle School and put our teachers and students at a high risk! I would love to see metal detectors at all Middle and High Schools in the near future. Forsyth County has the funding to make this happen, that is not the issue, they just feel it would be better spent in other ways. I’m not sure what could be more important than deterring students from bringing guns and knives to school.

I did mention to Todd Shirley an alternate starting point – random pop up screenings a couple times a week and random schools. This is a much more affordable option and it will ease everyone into getting used to the idea of them. The system I researched stated they are 25 lbs. and take less than 5 minutes to set up. Mr. Shirley’s concern is the children feeling like they are in a prison. I, personally, feel that the students would feel safer knowing that heavy measures have been taken to keep them safe, allowing them to focus on their school work.

If we could accomplish this system to be put in place by next year, I would consider it huge progress and a great starting point. Then we can focus on slowly getting them into all the middle and high school – targeting the schools with the most violent incidents.

Please continue to share and talk about this petition every chance you get – MAKE SOME NOISE!

I will continue to research and reach out to people higher up that can really help us make a difference, and I will keep everyone updated along the way.

Again, thank you so very much for your support in our School Safety Systems!

- Sasha