Cumberland Officials Emphasizing School Safety

The Cumberland County Schools want to make sure safety is paramount at each of the county’s schools.

Director of Schools Billy Stepp said the school board recently met with County Commissioners in a closed session to review each school’s different challenges regarding security. Stepp said that since they are funded by the county, the commission needs to be informed about what the schools are dealing with.

“It’s just the time we’re in now,” Stepp said. “Obviously we had that terrible situation that happened in Georgia and then Nashville and it’s kind of the forefront now. Safety and security is my number one priority and it is the school board’s and the county commission’s. So we want to make sure we’re all on the same page and when issues come up we can work together to solve them.”

Stepp said the meeting came about due to recent concerns about security protocols of select schools in the county. Stepp said they will continue to search for new ways to fund and advance the protection of their students.

“What we’ve done in the past, we’ve spent a lot of money on push locks on each door in the classroom so the teacher can lock the door from the inside,” Stepp said. “We’ve worked on fencing. We’ve worked on cameras and single-entry points, those types of things.”

Stepp said the commission has been a key partner not only with funding but also by helping to advocate for school safety as a priority to the rest of the community.

“It’s just the overall awareness in how we’re spending our money,” Stepp said. “So that they know (how) we’re being to the taxpayer’s money within the school system, especially when we focus on those safety, security items and goals that we have.”

Stepp said they also have materials they use to teach families in the community about school security.

“We also become trauma informed in this community, which is identifying those students who have trauma,” Stepp said. “But those characteristics are also similar to the characteristics we look for when we do threat assessments, so it’s all kind of very similar in what we do.”