Safety takes more than metal detectors, school board chief says

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - One day after a shooting at Josey High School, the school parking lot was empty Thursday, with students and their parents worried about returning.

A student suffered an injury that wasn’t life-threatening Wednesday, and the suspected shooter turned himself in Thursday.

It could have been much worse – and local education leaders realize that.

MORE | For first time, gangs blamed for flare-up of school violence in CSRA

But it’ll leave emotional scars for quite some time.

“It was a pretty traumatic event for teachers,” said Charlie Walker Jr., Richmond County Board of Education president.

“We had a lot of folks, a lot of our teachers, who were traumatized by this. It was not something that was expected.”

For that reason and because the suspect still hadn’t been caught by Wednesday evening, officials decided to close Josey along with nearby Murphey Middle School and the Marion E. Barnes Career Center for the rest of the week.

MORE FROM NEWS 12:

Now that the suspect is in custody, education officials aren’t so worried about that. But they are concerned over the loss of instructional time.

“Three days of lost education – which we don’t appreciate that happening anytime – it’s a big disruption,” Walker said. “But the superintendent’s recommendation was we need a moment to regroup, especially for these educators and for the safety of the people in the school.”

Going forward, decisions on whether to cancel school will be made on a case-by-case basis.

“We can’t be intimidated to shut down our schools because of incidents like this,” Walker said. “If that were the case, then you know, we might never be open.”

MORE | Adult accused of agitating students during Butler High brawl

He said there should be discussions about harsher consequences for offenders.

“If there’s a certain percentage of the students and our school population that just don’t want to be there, then maybe they shouldn’t be there,” he said.

PHOTO GALLERY:

Looking at other prevention methods, Walker says it’ll take more than metal detectors at the door.

“People talk about scanners and stuff like that, but you can’t scan somebody’s mind. That just doesn’t exist,” he said.

“So, if we don’t know what the thought processes are, in people who want to do something stupid or bad or too disruptive, that technology doesn’t exist yet, and when it does, bring it to us and we’ll use it,” he said.

Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Bradshaw said Richmond County schools don’t have metal detectors – but he said that’s open for discussion.

Walker said metal detectors could make the community feel safer about schools.

Moving forward in the next couple of days, he hopes to have a meeting between law enforcement, district s and other of the school board.

He wants to discuss new ways to deter violence.