Oklahoma City Parent’s Concerns Over School Security Lapses Following Georgia School Shooting

In light of the deadly school shooting in Georgia, one parent in Oklahoma City questions his teenagers’ safety. The parent, who asked not to be identified said he noticed a lax in security while visiting Putnam City North High School.

“It's very unnerving,” he said. “If it's going off there's a reason for it.”

He’s talking about the school’s weapon detection system. When it goes off, with beeping sounds and flashing red lights, it means a possible weapon is detected. However, the parent said on Thursday while at the school to pick up his stepson, he noticed the alarms went off when a student walked through.

“It makes a beeping noise, the office personnel never looked up they never got off the phone the resource officer didn't come out of his office or wherever he was on campus, and she kept on walking,” he said. 

The parent says he’s speaking out to make the school and other parents aware of what he saw.

“If you want to secure the schools’ locations then you need to have an officer there to check everyone that's coming through the door,” he said.

Putnam City Schools put the weapon detection system into its high schools in January 2023 and later into all its middle schools. Unlike a metal detector, it’s activated when the shape or mass of a weapon is detected. Most times, what’s caught is not a threat. But he says now is not the time to be complacent.

“Very naive saying ‘Hey it'll never happen here,’” he said. “We're a big 2A (second amendment) state well Georgia is too.”

Four people were killed, and nine others were injured Wednesday at Apalachee High School in Georgia.

“It is on my mind, it's on my mind a lot,” he said. “Is this the last day the kids go to school?”

Just last year when his daughter attended Hefner Middle School, one student was taken into custody after a gun was fired inside the school. Nobody was hurt.

“Do we take away the guns? No, you can't do that, but you need to secure it,” the parent said. “If you say we have security then have security, not for someone to just walk in the door and do whatever.”

According to Putnam City Schools, the school is investigating these parents’ claims by viewing surveillance video and will make changes if needed. The district says the weapon detection system has kept weapons out of the school but didn’t have an exact number of how many weapons readily available.

Meanwhile, the district says other safety measures were put in place this year. Those measures include keeping the main entrance doors always locked. They also moved some classes on campus to the main building to decrease the number of students coming and going.