NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Back to school is just days away and North Little Rock is opening their doors with upgraded security.
The Trivedi family just moved to Arkansas-- they said they chose the North Little Rock School District (NLRSD) because of their safety measures.
"I searched it up online because I like to make sure my kids, where they go-- they'll be safe," mom, Apla Trivedi said.
"This is real safety here, you know, so I think this is much better for my kids, so I can send them to high school," dad, Prakash Trivedi said.
The security measures at NLRSD, adding comfort not just to parents-- but students too.
"...knowing that there could be school shooters or like someone that could intrude the school and have problems, it's better to like, keep it clean, instead of having that option," incoming sophomore Trishani Trivedi said.
While none in Arkansas, across the country there have been 74 reported school shootings in the last two years.
The statistics, pushing a nationwide focus on school safety. Safety that NLRSD said is a focus.
"We have a display of cameras that we can monitor all of our campuses from one location," NLRSD Security Chief Hayward Finks said about the new real time security system.
Surveillance from the hub has been expanded district wide, with new tracking technology this year.
"We have the capability, if we're looking for somebody with a red shirt on, we can kind of zoom in and narrow down a little quicker through the camera system, to help us get to, you know, the frames that we need to get to," Finks said.
Beyond cameras, weapon detectors will also be used at the entrance to every school this year, after a test run at the high school last year.
"We have purchased open gate weapon detectors to go and all of our buildings, there will be one at the front door of every elementary school," Finks said.
But, Finks said right now the elementary school detectors are not for students.
"Across the country where even at the elementary level, we've had incidents, we are not to the point of having all of our elementary students go through metal detectors, but we do have them, like I said, to keep the building safe for other people," Finks said.