All one needs to do is turn on the news, and you will hear and see criminals running amuck without worrying about being arrested. Remember the “Defund the Police” movement? Well, we see how that turned out. The only “good” thing that came out of that is it showed, and proved, we need more law enforcement officers.

In 2020 in the state of Oregon, its citizens voted to decriminalize illicit drugs. Four years later, arrests were down, but drug overdoses were up… way up! And now, the state of Oregon has decided that was a bad idea and have now criminalized illicit drugs and their use again. In the state of New York, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg wholeheartedly supported (and still does) no bond for those arrested and charged with certain crimes. In the city of New York, DA Bragg released several illegal migrants that had assaulted law enforcement officers in Times Square. One of those criminals even held up a “two figure salute” to America. Crime continues to run rampant in progressive ran cities across America.

In North Carolina, progressive-run cities’ crime rate is up as well. We even have progressive-run school boards that think ID kiosks and panic buttons on cell phones will prevent the next cowardly attack by a school shooter, or even a student bringing a weapon onto a Wake County school campus. Now, they want to suggest (or recommend) to law abiding parents and citizens alike on the ways to secure weapons in your home while being unable to prevent events like the fatal stabbing on the campus of Southeast Raleigh high school.

The progressive-run school board of Wake County received a $6.9 million grant, which was supposed to be used for school safety & security. In their infinite wisdom, they decided that the best way to spend that money was on ID kiosks and a cell-phone-based panic button system.

Does anyone think ID kiosks and panic buttons are the best way to prepare for the threat of a student or visitor using a weapon on campus? (Crickets chirping.) Not many did. So after that $6.9 million was spent, the same board decided they needed more money to pay for what they should have done with the original grant… actual school safety & security measures!

Let me help the progressives on the Wake County School Board on how real common sense was used on another $6.9 million dollar grant by their neighbor to the southeast, Johnston County. The Johnston County Board of Commissioners and the Johnston County School Board got it right the first time. They spent the same $6.9 million grant money on a school-resource officer (SRO) and weapons-detection systems in each school.

Since the implementation of these true safety and security preventive measures, not one violent act has been committed on any Johnston County public school campus. The only recorded incident was a man that went onto the campus of Clayton Middle School with a concealed weapon on his person. And guess what? The weapons detection system worked! It immediately alerted the SRO and staff present that this person had a concealed weapon.

An ID kiosk wouldn’t have stopped him, and panic button would likely have been too late if he had bad intentions. But with a weapon-detection system and an SRO, a threat can be immediately identified and responded to.

Wake County progressive school board members should take a page out of Johnston County’s playbook on how to use common sense and how to use grant money right the first time.