Local Mom Urges School Board to Implement Safety Measures Following Increase in School Shootings

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According to NPR, 27 school shootings occurred in 2022 alone, and one local mom is taking the recent shooting close to heart. Samantha Knox, mother to 3, spoke to one of our local school boards last week asking them to implement stronger safety measures in our school, including placing safety officers at each campus. She urged the Board to look into further safety measures, citing vulnerability in the safety measures taken at her daughters and other local schools. Information regarding safety issues within our local schools had been shared to Knox by an unnamed source working within the district. “Those vulnerable access points at our local schools have been brought to administration attention several times throughout the year, and they have yet to be fixed,” said Knox.

“I was the only one speaking at the open forum, and the only person asking about anything regarding security concerns. I was a little bit surprised that I was the only one there considering it had only been a month since the last school shooting. Not one other person was there asking their district what they are doing to ensure their student’s safety. I honestly didn’t expect much, let alone several news sites picking up on the story, but if it helps I’m grateful for it,” said Knox.

After the open forum session in the meeting, visitors were asked to leave. The Board passed $1.9M in security measures following the open forum, but none of that included new safety personnel. “I was contacted following the meeting letting me know that it was being discussed to add safety officers at each campus. However, they said the cost of an SRO would be around $125,000 a year, per campus. They also wanted to let me know that they were aware of many safety issues that had been complained about by staff at local schools, and that they were beginning to work on fixing them,” said Knox.

Knox will be calling the district back this month and requesting the discussion of safety measures be added again to the July agenda. “I am hoping more parents will come to the July meeting so we can truly make a difference in the safety of our children in local schools,” said Knox.

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