CMS hopes inaugural safety summit helps parents keep Charlotte students safe

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials are making sure parents are in the loop on the latest strategies and resources to keep students safe. 

On Tuesday night, district leaders hosted the first-ever safety summit.

Representatives from several different CMS departments spoke, along with state safety leaders. The goal was to let parents know district officials are working with community leaders to keep kids safe, and parents seemed to respond well to what they learned. 

“I really, really think that safety is going to have to be part of the adulting for any of our kids growing up,” said Mary Stokas, parent. 

Safety is top of mind for many parents in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. 

“So many adverse events have been happening around the country lately, so this was very important for me,” said Ritesh Ved, parent. 

Dozens of them showed up to the district’s inaugural safety summit Tuesday night where they got to explore community safety resources and hear from local and state safety leaders. 

“Parents entrust us to be the security guards of their children,” said CMS Police Chief J.D. Thomas. “Get them an education, but make sure when they drop them off or they get on the school bus, we have to ensure there’s not going to be an incident.” 

Thomas said he’s pleased with how the class year has gone so far, noting there have been few violent incidents and a decline in the number of weapons found on campus. He said that’s in part because of some of the updates his team has made to the safety protocols. 

“We’ve had to change our game,” he said. “We know we’ve got it safer and secure inside the school, so what is it that students do when they’re looking at getting a weapon there, they move to the outside. So, what did we do? We moved to the outside.” 

At the state level, officials are focusing on keeping guns out of kids’ hands. 

“Eighty-five guns came on school campuses last year,” said William Lassiter with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. “Seventy percent of those came from the parents’ own home. So, by a parent taking the simple step of locking up that gun … You can save your child’s life and maybe another student’s.” 

The main point of the event was that everyone needs to be involved to keep students from danger. 

“Safety is not just something that starts at the schoolhouse,” said CMS Chief Operations Officer Tim Ivey. “I think that’s been the big message. It is a shared responsibility of all of us who live in Mecklenburg County.” 

Ivey said he’s planning to make the safety summit a yearly event.