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By Buzz Trexler

Star Correspondent

It’s not only bricks and mortar, textbooks, paper, and computers that are part of the public education equation in the 21st century, but the list now includes things like card readers and ballistic film on windows.

It’s easy to understand the protective measures when there is a mass shooting like what occurred on Sept. 4 at Apalachee High School near Winder, Ga., that left two students and two teachers dead. However, Elizabethton and Carter County school systems trace their safety upgrades to 2022, when 46 reported incidents was said to be the worst year in U.S. history for school shootings since 1999, according to a Washington Post database. That was the year when the benchmark school massacre took place at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.: two teenagers killed 13 people and wounded more than 20 others, before committing suicide on April 20, 1999.

Carter County Schools Security

Carter County Director of Schools Brandon Carpenter said during the past two years the system has constructed secure vestibules at the entrance of various buildings but has taken other steps as well. “We have installed ballistic film. We have installed electronic card readers. We have equipped three elementary schools with red dot locks that allow classrooms to lock down with the push of a button,” Carpenter said in response to an email request from The Star.

The system has also installed additional fencing at various locations, upgraded cameras, and implemented an integrated school pass system at all schools. Carpenter said the safety steps continue when students leave the school grounds on buses: “We have equipped all our buses with new cellular-based radios that allow for GPS tracking.”

Elizabethton City Schools Security

Elizabethton City Schools Director Richard VanHuss also responded to an email request, saying that while the city system focuses on setting “the bar high for academic instruction,” there is an awareness that food, water, shelter, and safety are needs that “must be met before expecting our students and staff to reach their peak performance levels.”

“To that end, we are unwavering in our commitment to maintaining the safety of our schools,” VanHuss said. “In the past year alone, ECS has made monumental strides in safety. Using federal and state grants in partnership with local funds, we have dedicated over $600,000 to these projects in the past two years alone.”

Earlier this year, the system adopted a new emergency management system, VanHuss said. “The system allows school staff to report students’ locations and statuses in real-time, call for lockdowns, initiate fire drills and evacuations, and report suspicious activity in a matter of seconds from their laptops or mobile devices. Should a relocation off campus and subsequent reunification of our students with their families ever occur, the system will also seamlessly communicate with our student information system to provide emergency contact information to our staff and notify all listed emergency contacts when a student is safely reunited with an approved family member.”

Over the summer, the school system installed additional fencing at Elizabethton High School and Harold McCormick Elementary School, as well as ballistic film on ground-level windows and doors. “This film has been proven to reduce the ability to breach our buildings through assault, providing our staff and emergency responders valuable time to address a threat before access to the interior of the buildings is gained,” VanHuss said. “These changes, along with past projects which include the hardening of school entrances, make our campuses exponentially safer than they were only a few short years ago.”

In January, the Elizabethton Board of Education approved a contract with Central Technologies Inc., of Knoxville, to install electronic card readers on interior classroom and office doors at Elizabethton High School, East Side Elementary, West Side Elementary, T.A. Dugger Junior High, and Harold McCormick Elementary. “This new system requires a system-issued badge that employees must scan to gain access to classrooms,” the director said. “Our IT department controls and monitors these badges, which can be activated or deactivated in minutes should the need arise.”

The project is funded through a Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant from the U.S. Department of Justice which has provided more than $20 billion in grants since 1994. In total, the system has received somewhere around $900,000 in grant funding that’s gone directly into making our schools safer, the director said earlier this year.

VanHuss gave credit to Elizabethton Police Chief Jason Shaw and the police department for helping to keep students and staff safe. “The EPD stations school resource officers at each of our five schools on every instructional day of the school year,” VanHuss said. “They also assist our administrators in our yearly site safety assessments, which lead to identifying areas of need like those already mentioned. Through this continued partnership and dedication to our students and staff, we will continue seeking ways to improve school safety in Elizabethton.”

From 1970 to 2022, there were 2,069 shootings, 694 deaths, and 1,937 injuries involving events in which “a gun is brandished, is fired, or a bullet hits school property for any reason,” according to a K-12 school shooting database compiled by the Center for Homeland Defense and Security, at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.

The Elizabethton City School system posted Thursday morning on social media that school officials were aware of online postings Wednesday night suggesting threats to area schools, including Elizabethton High School. The school system and area law enforcement agencies have issued statements saying there are no active credible threats to Elizabethton High School or any other schools in the Elizabethton City School system at this time.

Those who are aware of a threat to student or school safety, or any other crime, can submit tips anonymously online at: www.sheriff.cc/home/contact-us/crime-tip.