LANDIS — Statistics show that kids who are bullied by the age of 8 are more likely to have criminal records as adults.

This is what N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper told students at South Rowan High School when he spoke to them Wednesday. Cooper talked with students and faculty about how to make schools safe.

Bullied kids, Cooper said, were the shooters in the Columbine High School massacre.

Junior Anthony Roseman said if a student is out of the ordinary it makes him or her a target for being picked on. Roseman said he and some of his friends have felt targeted.

Maybe it is their clothes, which he said are mostly black — the “goth look” to some. Or maybe it’s getting good grades.

“We’ve been picked on for being different,” Roseman said.

Roseman admitted he has heard people make what he calls joking threats, but he said he can tell it’s just talk.

“I know they don’t mean it,” Roseman said. “If they don’t mean it, they laugh about it.”

He added he’s never felt any comments were serious.

“I feel like this school is safer than others,” Roseman said.

Cooper agreed. That’s why he picked South Rowan as one of the schools in the state to visit and talk with students and faculty.

“I firmly believe that public education is a top priority,” Cooper said. He added that his three school-age daughters make this issue personal to him.

“In just about every violent incident across the nation, someone has made a threat,” Cooper said.

Cooper said that 99 percent of threats made in schools never become violent incidents, but that small percentage is the danger. This is why it is so important for students to report each threat, Cooper said.

During his visit, Cooper spoke with the junior United States history classes of Jim Pope and Jason Rollins.

Cooper asked students why they thought having a school resource officer was so important.

“It’s like a direct connection with the police department,” said junior Dustin Cline.

Cooper also asked the students where they felt the least safe in school.

Cline said the parking lot seemed the most unsafe before they got the video cameras.

School officials installed more than 30 cameras in various locations throughout the school grounds last August.

Technology teacher Keith Sutton said these cameras have been a great advantage for the school.

Other students said they felt the cafeteria and the auditorium seemed the most unsafe.

Junior Anji Sloop, whose mother is a bus driver, said she felt the buses were the most unsafe. Sloop said that a bus driver can’t watch what the students are doing and watch the road at the same time.

Cooper said at most schools he’s visited, “buses” is the No. 1 answer.

He asked students how they felt about the punishment for bringing a firearm or explosives to school.

Currently, on the first offense, a student is suspended for a year. If a second offense occurs, the student may then be charged with a felony, according to Cooper.

“I think they should be treated like adults,” said junior Kenneth McCoy.

Another student said she felt the offender should be expelled instead of suspended.

Cooper also talked to a group of South Rowan teachers Wednesday, commending them and local law enforcement for being prepared.

Cooper said the country has learned a great deal from incidents like the Columbine shootings and have used that knowledge to better prepare officers as well as school officials.

Cooper’s office is providing North Carolina schools with critical incident response kits. In this little black box are keys to every door in the school, maps of the school grounds, schedules, attendance records for the day and bus routes.

“We know where all students are at all times,” said L.A. Brown, school resource officer.

“I hope and pray we never have to use this,” Cooper said, but he feels that if a school like South Rowan did, it was prepared.

A concern Principal Dr. Alan King raised during the discussion was that not all teachers have the ability to contact the main office from their classrooms.

Currently King has instructed his staff to use their best judgment if a situation were to arise, but the school is working on getting a means of communication in each classroom.

Rowan County Sheriff George Wilhelm also addressed the teachers, telling them of a countywide plan one of his employees is working on for school safety. Through this plan, all school officials and law enforcement officials in the county would be trained in the same procedure during an incident at a school.

Part of this plan will also be training.

The Landis Police Department has already been training at the school at night. After learning procedures, officers then participate in a role-playing scenario with a shooter in the school. Resource officer Brown said the practices “make the adrenaline kick in.”

Brown thinks both she and the teachers at South are prepared.

Brown also said she has a good relationship with the students, that they feel comfortable coming to her if they hear or witness anything out of the ordinary.

“These kids are my kids,” she said. “They know, if they tell me something, that’s as far as it goes.”

King agreed that at the heart of keeping schools safe is the relationship between students and faculty. He said he feels that a good relationship is present, but it is the school’s goal to make it even better.

“We owe it to our children to be sure we are ready,” Cooper said.

Contact Jillian McCartney at 704-797-4253 or jmccartney@salisburypost.com .