Students in North Carolina will return to safer classrooms in the coming weeks. The most recent data shows criminal weapons related offenses in schools were at a 20-year low.
The number of people caught at school with a weapon dropped to its lowest level since the 2006-07 school year, the earliest year for which data are available, according to recent WRAL reporting.
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The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction counted 1,875 offenses in 2024-25, down from 2,378 offenses the previous year.
State educators are gathered in Greenville this week to update teachers and school officials on best practices for security and safety ahead of the new year.
David Kleine, who oversees school safety for Person County Schools, touted his district's implementation of weapons detection systems in recent years. Currently, there are several Evolv weapons scanners across multiple county buildings.
“It becomes a great deterrent. We’ve had minor issues where there are less than desired objects brought to school. That high success rate has deterred future events from occurring," Kleine said.
There were, in fact, 11 fewer possession of weapons offenses between 2025 and 2022 in Person County than there were between 2019 and 2016.
Statewide, criminal offenses went down again in North Carolina schools during the 2024-25 school year, with another significant drop in offenses for weapon possession.
Total offenses dropped from 12,212 the year before to 11,470 offenses last year, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
Other schools upgrading security practices
School officials in Sampson County, North Carolina, are deploying weapons detection systems one week after the start of their school year.
It adds to the growing number of school districts in central North Carolina that have implemented some form of weapons detection systems for students. Sampson was previously on a short list of school districts, including Wake County encompassing Raleigh, that had not implemented some type of system.
The district plans on using OpenGate weapons detection systems, which use two independent freestanding pillars that emit electromagnetic fields to scan people and their backpacks on the move. The system uses advanced signal processing to distinguish between harmless metal items and real threats.
Several school systems have used the system in the past, including Cumberland County Schools and a Johnston County middle school.
Nine schools in the county, including all middle and high schools, will deploy them at entry points for students. Each of those schools will have at least one, and some will have multiple.
“Let’s look forward and see if we can be as safe as we can be," said Michael Warren, director of school safety for Sampson County Schools.
Warren shared those updates with WRAL at the RISE Back to School Safety Summit, hosted by the NC Center for Safer Schools, which is housed within the State Bureau of Investigation.
The conference, a multi-day event in Greenville, aims to teach educators best safety and security practices weeks before students return back to class.