On Tuesday, May 15, VBCPS Superintendent Dr. Spence and members of the division’s newly created Blue Ribbon Panel on School Safety and Security hosted a public community meeting at Kellam High School. The purpose of the meeting was to allow members of the community, such as students, teachers, administrators, parents, and security professionals to come and voice their concerns about school safety and share ideas on how the school system could improve to best protect its students. Community members were encouraged to take into consideration implications for emergency preparedness and response, security infrastructure and personnel, behavioral issues, and mental health.

Upon arrival to the meeting, guests were checked in and seated at one of ten tables along with about five other random community members, as well as a group facilitator and a recorder. The 90 minute meeting was broken into three sessions, each set to focus on one of three questions that the school system wanted feedback on. The first question was in regards to what the school division does well in providing for school safety and security, and groups were given 15 minutes to discuss their answers. The second question asked what gaps exist in regards to school safety and security that need to be addressed, and groups were given an additional 15 minutes to discuss this question. Lastly, groups were given 30 minutes to discuss what new resources could be added or what existing resources could be used in different ways to strengthen school safety and security.

Each individual in each group was encouraged to speak their mind, and the recorder for the group would jot down every idea that was said, and then take a tally of how many other group members agreed with the idea mentioned. The papers with the group members’ ideas were turned in after the meeting to the Blue Ribbon Panel on School Safety and Security and will be considered and discussed before the panel decides what actions will be taken and what changes will be made to the VBCPS division this summer in regards to school safety and security.

The groups were unable to hear what other groups had brought up in their discussions, but the group that the Roaring Gazette sat down with was quite thorough, expressing an array of ideas and opinions from a variety of diverse perspectives.

The incident in which a gun was brought into and fired in Salem High School was frequently mentioned as a moment in which the school’s security and safety systems might have failed them. Metal detectors and random searches were suggested as ideas on how to prevent students from being able to bring essentially any concealed item into their school, including a weapon. However, the group also recognized that more resources addressed to student mental health was also vitally important in preventing further instances such as this one from happening again.

The group discussed the lack of adequately trained and available personnel that was available in schools, particularly middle and high schools, that could assist in improving student mental health and behavioral issues. They also thought of possible ideas on how to not only bring more awareness to students on how to deal with issues like mental illness, sexual assault, and harassment, but to prevent these issues from happening in the first place by educating students at a young age. One of the suggestions for this was using Tallwood’s equivalent of a LEO block as a more tight-knit group to discuss these sort of serious issues in a more effective manner.

In discussing how schools should never feel like a prison to students, and how students should not feel that they are being left out of information that is designed to protect them, the community members decided that students needed more knowledge and power to contribute to the safety of their school. They deemed it important that students be fully aware of and educated on the various measures that students can take to keep themselves and others safe, as a large disconnect between the information that staff members were given and the information that students were given was identified. It was also suggested that students be taught what exactly constitutes inappropriate or dangerous behavior and how students can go about handling and reporting that. An emergency text-in system for students was brought up as a way for students to constantly remain safe and be able to easily report any dangerous situation they may witness, or report another student who seems like they might need help.

As the meeting drew to a close, Dr. Spence shared a thought voiced by a community member in a previous meeting that had left him feeling distraught. He said that someone had written down that VBCPS had been lucky, not safe. Dr. Spence assured that although there was always room for improvement, he fundamentally believed that the many measures that were already in place had prevented many potentially disastrous events.

“We haven’t just been lucky, we have been safe,” assures Dr. Spence.

After nearly an hour of discussing all the negatives about Virginia Beach City Public Schools’ security and safety systems, the group was reminded of all the positives they had listed at the beginning, and how much truly was being done to ensure the safety of students. There are school-wide drills for emergency events, locked doors that are under constant video surveillance, a thought-out emergency plan for different scenarios, an Alert Now system for parents, a crisis team, a check-in system, security professionals, and so much more. While of course there are issues and gaps with the security and safety systems that need to be addressed, Virginia Beach schools are safe, and the community meeting was an assurance to the public that the division is dedicated to making them even safer.

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