Salem Academy 601 South Church Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101

"One of the best educational experiences of my life. Salem Academy fully prepared me for my time at Smith College and Columbia University. The diversity of experiences is unparalleled. I had leadership opportunities, worked with mentors through the Jan Term Program, and met young ladies from throughout the South and from all over the world. The quality of teachers and staff are incredible and the city of Winston-Salem delivers options to interact and work with businesses, art institutions, and the local alum community."

"My daughter goes to Salem. We traveled through the north-east looking at schools and I did not find anything that replicated the charm, hospitality and warm atmosphere of this school. My daughter has been there for three years and I have nothing but the utmost respect for the entire package - campus, faculty, activities and students. We love Salem"

"I was very unsatisfied with the stuff that happened here. Also, the security is absolutely horrible."

"The bread and butter of Salem. Everything at Salem Academy is superior to Salem College. They have great staff services, a great student teacher ratio, fun staff and faculty who do their best to make the students who attend and live here feel at "home". The food preparation is of the highest quality, even when parents aren't there. The only issue is the security department which protects the students: The "Public Safety Department" was contracted approx. 5 years ago. The number of security officers were cut significantly, their pay was lessened, their benefits slowly removed and revoked and they were completely disarmed. That's right, the people in charge of your children have no capability to physically protect them. They are armed with a radio and a small flashlight. Nothing else. When the college ran security the guards had night sticks, hand cuffs and mace. On top of that they are paid quite poorly. From what I understand an average officer is paid approx. $11 an hour with no benefits. So the people in charge of protecting your kids are only paid approx. $21,000 per year. What happens when your children are in danger and the only people who can help are paid very little and have no weapons? I'll leave you to think about that. Now the administration will say that the Winston-Salem Police Department patrols the area frequently. That is disingenuous. If there is a serious incident, let's say an active shooter, the police are anywhere between 2 and 7 minutes away from arriving on campus. Then the police must attempt to locate the shooter and neutralize them. However, the police do not know the campus very well because they do not directly patrol it. Only campus security knows the area and has the expectation to help the police. If you are paid $11 an hour and have no weapon to protect yourself, no body armor to protect against bullets, will you wait around for the police and then lead them to an active shooter? Maybe some would, but there's certainly no incentive for them to do so. They are simply unarmed security guards. Their uniforms and titles as Public Safety Officers are deceiving. This is not to mention the high turnover rate. It seems like I see a new face every month, and I don't mean they're adding employees. In fact, they are running on a skeletal crew. When the Public Safety Department was directly run by Salem College (not by a contracting company) they had ample personnel for proper coverage of the college. Now I can count the number of security guards on two hands. Ever since the college handed the security department over to contractor companies they have switched companies three times. If you send your children to attend this college they will not be adequately protected to the level I would desire my own children be protected. If you contact the school about these issues, they will downplay them. They will say they will work on addressing them but they have failed to do so in the past. Eventually those asking questions stop and everything returns to normal and no lasting changes are made. These security flaws need to be addressed and need to be addressed sooner rather than later. The safety of our kids are the most important thing."