COLUMBIA, S.C. — As students in the Richland Two School District head back to the classroom, district leaders are sharing numbers that reflect safer schools. Director of Communications for Richland Two, Greg Turchetta, said the data looks promising.
“We pulled the data to see how the high schools have been when it comes to weapons, and the data’s fantastic," Turchetta said. "Last year, we had 62 weapons, and this year, to date, we’ve had 13. Last year, we had five handguns so far this year, which is a whole semester, one. Knives; 32 last year and only four this year. Now, that’s still one more gun and four more knives than you want to have in your schools, but for only a semester of data, that’s very encouraging.”
Since installing permanent metal detectors last school year in the district’s high schools, Turchetta said students seem less motivated to bring weapons into the school buildings.
“We even had a success story at the middle schools. At one of the middle schools, they found a knife in the trash can outside the screening station, so obviously, a student brought a knife to school, saw the safety screening going on, and chucked it. That's a success story, too," Turchetta said.
Now, the district is discussing permanently installing metal detectors in the middle schools after it started testing pop-up detectors earlier this school year.
However, after a loaded gun was found in a teacher's lounge inside Round Top Elementary in early December 2023, parent Gary Dennis said he hopes the conversation about metal detectors in the district's schools will include elementary-level students as well.
“Well, it's not just about what just happened; metal detectors should have been in all the schools to begin with," Dennis said. "There are steps that a lot of parents won't take, and a lot of steps just don't work. One of the biggest deterrents is metal detectors; if you see something you know is going to catch you as a criminal, you're probably not going to go that route."
Greg Turchetta said adding more safety devices will take time and discussions that might require more research.
“If you're going to look at taking safety screenings and expanding them, you have to look at finances. It's not cheap. At the five high schools, it's $3 million a year in staffing costs. The equipment was a couple hundred thousand dollars. It's the ongoing staffing cost you have to look at," Turchetta said.
The school district’s safety committee meets monthly and is talking about ways to better include students in the conversation about school safety.
The next Richland Two Safety and Security Committee Meeting is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 8, at 6 p.m. in the Richland Two Institute Of Innovation (R2i2) building at 763 Fashion Dr, Columbia.
