NORFOLK, Va. - A community conversation on school safety and security, was the focus of a special town hall meeting that News 3 partnered with WHRO Public Media and iHeart Radio.
WTKR's law enforcement analyst, former Norfolk Police Chief Larry Boone was one of the panel members addressing what can schools do, "One of the things they can do is create an assessment team, a mental health assessment team, who knows better than the teachers when little Johnny is having an issue."
It wasn't just what schools can do---one local mom, Shana Alexander was stressing parental involvement.
"It really starts at home, honestly if you're not having that dialogue with your children to know what's going on---how are you going to stop that active shooter?" asked Alexander.
There was a big push on how crucial it is to change the narrative about students sharing information.
U.S. Navy Command Dr. T. A. Warren says this is so important, "We have to educate that you're not being a snitch, actually telling a teacher, a counselor that an individual may be dealing with particular issues. So, I think the community as a whole, has to debunk the theory."
Churchland High Principal Shawn Millaci says his school emphasizes building bridges with students to build trust.
"When you build those relationships, true relationships--you're able to have that conversation with that staff member---there's somebody you can go--we want every single student to have at least one staff member in the building they are comfortable talking to," he said.
What about the daily use of metal detectors in schools? There were competing views.
Parent Shana Alexander favors them, "Those metal detectors need to be running every single day--that's how you keep those guns out of school---don't want my kids--walk through that metal detector! I need them to walk through that metal detector every day."
But Reshard Wright, Chief of Staff for Newport News Public Schools, says it's not so clear cut, "Do we have to build forts? It's a balance of, we want to have random searches and we want our searches and metal detectors to be a deterrent--is that something we want to do every day?"
