Wake County Public School System leaders briefed school board members Tuesday on safety measures more than a month after a student brought a gun to Millbrook High School.
They touted the success of the state's anonymous reporting app, Say Something, in alerting authorities and stopping the student from using the gun. The school's actions that day have drawn dozens of messages of thank you and support from the school community.
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The app is used across the country and provided by nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise. All North Carolina public school systems are required to have it or something similar in their middle and high schools.
The app is helpful for encouraging students to talk to adults and in the text format many of them are most comfortable using, said Corliss Thompson-Drew, the district's director of school psychology.
"Teenagers are not necessarily comfortable with just walking up and sharing stuff with people," Thompson-Drew said. "It's very important that we provide the climate for them to do that."
The school system has received about 250 tips from the app this school year. About two-thirds have been related to student behavior, and about one-third have been related to school security. The top reports are related to suicidality, violence toward other students and suspected planned school attacks.
Say Something works by messages being sent directly to a team of people with Sandy Hook Promise, who ask the tipster questions and determine whether the tip is a life-safety issues. If it is, they alert a team at the school, all at once, who can then quickly decide what to do.
The district also has a 24/7 phone tip line, though it doesn't generate as many tips as the app. It also doesn't generate as quick of a response, said Kendrick Scott, the district's senior security director.
Officials briefly went over some other safety updates before board members went into closed session to discuss further work on improving safety and security.
Those updates included the district's new emergency response system, replacing its code red system.
The school board is also forming plans for potentially more than $30 million in security infrastructure upgrades. The district considers the projects confidential for the time being so as not to expose any security vulnerabilities.
After a closed session Tuesday, Scott told WRAL News there was nothing new to share until the board makes decisions.
The district is considering a variety of safety measures generally, including weapons detection systems, though it's unclear what is under serious consideration for this more than $30 million in funding.