durham

South Durham in Five: Gun Safety, School Policy, and Three Ballot Questions

Three recent shooting deaths sharpened Durham’s focus on gun safety, DPS set a one-hour limit for off-campus religious instruction, and voters face three constitutional amendments. Which story should Southpoint Access keep following?

Good morning, neighbors.

This week brought hard questions about what Durham can prevent, what local leaders can control, and what voters will be asked to lock into the state Constitution.

Three people died in separate shootings within days. Durham’s new police chief called for renewed gun-safety education. The school board adopted a state-mandated religious-instruction policy while wrestling with enrollment, staffing, and transportation. And Durham’s reservoirs kept shrinking despite September rain.

Here’s South Durham in five questions.

1. What is Durham’s new police chief saying about gun safety?

A girl died Tuesday evening after Durham police said a gun went off while two juveniles were playing with it.

Minutes earlier, officers found a man with multiple gunshot wounds in the 900 block of Eva Street. He died at the scene. Early Friday, police reported a third fatal shooting after officers found a man wounded in the 700 block of Rigsbee Avenue.

“We have had devastating, unfortunate incidents over the last couple weeks that have just been really heartbreaking,” Police Chief Stephanie Mardis told City Council members Thursday.

Mardis called for more public education about securing firearms and said she wants Durham to begin a gun-safety initiative in local schools.

Her first report to the council showed a complicated picture. Shooting incidents fell about 2.6% during the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year, but the number of people shot rose 14%. Violent offenses increased 5.5%, driven largely by aggravated assaults.

Guns taken from vehicles remain part of the problem. Mardis said about 63% of the firearms reported stolen through the second quarter came from vehicles. Police are working with neighboring agencies toward a regional response.

Mayor Leonardo Williams also asked city attorneys to research whether Durham could penalize people for failing to secure firearms. The council didn’t adopt a storage requirement Thursday.

Read what Chief Mardis reported and what she wants Durham to do next.

This week’s SoDu Crime Watch counted 100 property and financial incident reports at 73 address blocks, up from 85 reports the previous week. Vehicle-related theft led the list with 44 reports, followed by 24 shoplifting reports.

That increase doesn’t prove crime rose. Reports can take several days to appear, and the Sept. 24 data may still be incomplete.

Explore the latest SoDu Crime Watch.

2. When can DPS students leave school for religious instruction?

Durham’s school board voted unanimously Thursday to let students leave campus for private religious instruction for up to one hour a week. The trip there and back counts toward that hour.

North Carolina’s 2026 budget law requires school systems to allow at least one and no more than four hours a week for what it calls “released time religious instruction.” DPS chose the minimum.

The instruction must happen off campus and be requested in writing by a parent or guardian. Families must provide transportation. Students won’t receive academic credit, and DPS employees may neither encourage nor discourage participation.

The policy bars students from leaving during math, science, social studies, English language arts, state testing, screenings, remedial instruction, interventions, and retesting. Students also must make up missed work.

Board Member Millicent Rogers said the Policy Committee expects to revisit the rules in January after the district sees how many students participate and whether problems emerge. A speaker at the meeting urged DPS to add safeguards for disability-related services, require background checks, and publicly account for staff time.

The board’s start-of-school review also showed:

29,246 students: That’s the early districtwide enrollment count, 471 fewer than last year. The presentation mistakenly labeled it as the traditional-school count, but administrators corrected the error during the meeting.
84 teacher openings: That’s down from more than 100 at the same time last year. Thirty-four openings were in exceptional children’s education.
222 total vacancies: The count includes teaching and nonteaching jobs across the district.
More electric buses: DPS expects 13 more this year, bringing its electric fleet to 15.

Read what the board decided and what the opening-of-school review revealed.

3. What are the three constitutional amendments on North Carolina’s ballot?

North Carolina voters will decide three proposed changes to the state Constitution this fall.

The first would expand the Constitution’s photo ID language from people voting in person to all voters. State law already requires people voting by mail to include an acceptable ID copy or use an exception form, so the amendment would have little immediate effect on this election. Its main effect would be making the broader requirement harder for future lawmakers to change.

The second would lower the constitutional ceiling on personal and corporate income-tax rates from 7% to 3.5% beginning in 2027. Existing projections already put the 2027 personal rate at 3.49%, so the amendment might not produce an immediate tax cut. It would limit what future lawmakers could do during a recession, emergency, or budget crisis.

The third would require the General Assembly to limit future growth in the property-tax revenue collected by local governments. The ballot doesn’t tell voters the percentage, formula, start date, or exceptions. Lawmakers would write those details later.

For Durham, that last proposal could eventually affect the money available for schools, police, fire protection, libraries, parks, public health, social services, and other local programs. It wouldn’t automatically reduce anyone’s current tax bill.

Early voting begins Oct. 15. The regular voter-registration deadline is Oct. 9.

See what each amendment could mean for your ballot, wallet, and local services.

4. Is September rain helping Durham’s reservoirs?

Not enough.

Lake Michie and Little River Reservoir were at a combined 45% of capacity Sept. 22, down from 46% two weeks earlier.

The city estimates that Durham has 96 days of readily accessible reservoir water remaining. That figure stood at 103 days in the previous update.

Durham remains in a moderate drought and under mandatory Stage 2 water restrictions. Some September rain reached the reservoirs, but it wasn’t enough to keep the city’s stored supply from shrinking.

The numbers don’t mean Durham will run out of water in 96 days. The estimate covers readily accessible reservoir water and doesn’t include every reserve or outside source available to the city. But the direction still matters: The immediate supply declined during a month when residents might reasonably have expected rainfall to help.

Read the latest Durham drought and reservoir update.

5. Did grocery prices rise across South Durham?

The average SoDu Shopping Basket rose 95 cents this week to $67.95, but that doesn’t mean most stores raised their prices.

Aldi remained the least expensive of the nine stores at $52.05. The overall increase came largely from Fresh Market, where the 17-item basket jumped $10.20.

Across the other eight stores, the average actually fell about 21 cents. Three stores posted higher totals, three declined, and three were unchanged. None moved in the rankings.

It’s a good example of why an average can hide the more useful story. A large move at one store can change the headline number even when most shoppers would see little difference elsewhere.

Compare this week’s prices at nine stores serving South Durham.

Around the neighborhood

Young lacrosse players return to Rogers-Herr

The Durham Warbirds junior team, made up of first- through third-graders, opened its fall season Sept. 19 against the Chapel Hill Cheetahs at Rogers-Herr Middle School.

See the Southpoint Access photo gallery.

Remembering Durham neighbors

This week’s In Memoriam honors people whose lives touched Durham, with service information and links to their full remembrances.

Read Durham obituaries for the week of Sept. 22.

Find something to do this weekend

Saturday brings the Vets to Vets United 5K9 Dog Jog in Cary and the Outlandish Hillsborough Scottish Festival at Ayr Mount. The Durham Comics Club meets Sunday evening at Ment Beverage Co.

Browse the complete weekend roundup.

What I’m watching next

Duke Energy’s proposed 270-foot communications tower on Scott King Road remains unresolved. The company sought more time to conduct a balloon test, which could affect the number of variances it requests and the evidence presented for its minor special-use permit.

Southpoint Access will keep tracking the new hearing date and what the test reveals about the tower’s visibility from nearby neighborhoods.

Read why Duke Energy sought to delay the tower hearing.

The Durham County commissioners also meet at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 28. Residents who want to speak virtually must register with the clerk by 2 p.m. Sunday.

The campaign goes into overtime

The Sept. 22 deadline passed, but the 100 Neighbors for Local News campaign isn’t finished.

As of Friday, 73 neighbors had contributed $4,724.94. That puts Southpoint Access just $275.06 short of the $5,000 goal, although we still need 27 more neighbors to reach 100.

The support already given will help pay freelance reporters, public-records and research expenses, and more original reporting about South Durham. I’m grateful to everyone who contributed, shared the campaign, or told a neighbor why independent local news matters.

Help Southpoint Access finish the drive.

Take a breather

Jeff Stanford’s latest Nerdspresso begins with a delayed train, a group of increasingly sober Welsh rugby fans, and a celebrity comparison he didn’t ask for.

Read: “I Look Like Teen Wolf’s Dad. No Offense, Mate.”

This week’s Dispatches Received in Error brought South Durham a public warning about counterfeit saints, insufficiently licensed lantern-bearers, and the continued danger of charisma without accreditation.

Read: Public Notice Regarding Counterfeit Saints.

I also spent my 60th birthday at Yorktown, where a museum exhibit about John Adams and the Sedition Act collided with a modern fight over White House press access.

Read: At Yorktown, I remembered what journalism is for.

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with Southpoint Access.

Which story mattered most to you this week? What should I keep following? Reply to this newsletter or join the conversation in the SoDu Town Square.

See you around the neighborhood.

Wes Platt
Neighborhood News Guy
Southpoint Access

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