Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools to focus on safety

In the weeks after a gun went off on a bus at Chapel Hill High, administrators have worked to figure out what went wrong.

But even as different theories have been put forward on why it happened, students and parents said they don’t feel less safe in general.

At the beginning of the semester, 87 percent of 2,516 Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools parents surveyed reported feeling their children were safe at school. Parents are still standing by this sentiment.

“The shooting was really more of an isolated incident,” said Marie Donahue, mother of a junior at Chapel Hill High and a current UNC graduate student.

According to Chapel Hill police reports, 11 weapons have found their way onto the campus in the past five years, compared with seven at East Chapel Hill High School.

Chapel Hill High principal Jesse Dingle, who took over in the fall, said he believed the April 15 bus incident was the first time a gun was involved.

The next week, in a separate incident, a student at the school was found with a knife in his bookbag, according to Chapel Hill police reports.

While the incidents caused fear initially, Chapel Hill High senior Anna Norwood said the mood changed after the shooting.

“It was kind of scary because no one really expected it when it happened, but it’s almost become a joke now,” she said.

Still, the school system is looking at the incidents as an inspiration to improve safety at Chapel Hill High.

One way could be to look at the root causes.

School resource officer Gary Beneville said students could be bringing weapons to campus as a result of bullying that takes place online on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which he says is increasing in frequency and severity. Those arguments could carry over to campus, he said.

“There’s such an ease with which people can say things behind the veil of their computer,” Dingle said.

Another way to do that could be throuhg installing more security cameras.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools officials met with Chapel Hill High administrators on Monday to discuss what worked well and what didn’t about how the school handled the situation, said Stephanie Knott, spokeswoman for the school district.

One concern shared by administrators was the number of security cameras on campus and their placement, Knott said.

Chapel Hill High has 42 security cameras, Beneville said, while East Chapel Hill High has 63 and Carrboro High School has 68.

Beneville said he would like to see more cameras placed outside because the school has four main buildings with separate sports facilities.

“Kids know weapons on school grounds are not going to be tolerated,” he said. “But then again, kids do things at this age that don’t make sense to the rest of us.”



Staff writer Jake Filip contributed reporting.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.