Hamilton County Schools parents voice concerns about school safety after threats against district schools

Hamilton County resident Rebecca Day takes the podium to voice her concerns about school safety at Thursday's Hamilton County Schools school board meeting. (Screenshot) 

A handful of local parents and community members spoke to Hamilton County Schools leaders about school safety concerns at Thursday’s school board meeting, following a recent string of threats against schools throughout the district.

Rebecca Day was among local residents who spoke before the board, urging leaders of the East Tennessee school district to come up with a “real solution that prioritizes the well-being and safety of every child in the district.” She noted that as of Thursday, local law enforcement had made over 50 arrests relating to threats of mass violence against schools, which shows the scope of the problem in the district.

Day added that the district should also improve how it communicates with parents about threats against schools and what school leaders plan to do about them moving forward.

“We've witnessed a series of troubling incidents this year, and yet the response from the administration has left many parents and community members feeling uncertain and frustrated. The safety of students should be an absolute priority,” she said. “The plan that I hope that you guys will develop needs to be developed by experts in the field of school safety, and not solely by the administration. We need those who specialize in threat assessment, crisis management, and student safety to guide this process, ensuring that we use the best practices available.”

“I urge the board to work together to develop a comprehensive safety plan and communicate that to the community, and especially to parents,” she continued. “Our children deserve better, and we must now act to further prevent that harm that's been happening all across the nation. This isn’t isolated to Hamilton County.”

Catherine White, a parent of a student at Red Bank High School also spoke to the board, saying she’s been particularly concerned about her child’s safety following recent threats against the school and others across the district. White said she believes the issue of threats against schools is systemic and needs to be approached as such.

“This is not a problem that is going to go away. The school board cannot fix bad parenting, drugs, alcohol, mental illness, violent video games, violent music, or social media overload. You just can't. It's systemic, and so the root cause when you've got this concern needs to be addressed differently. We've got 45,000 children in 79 schools, and so what worries me is it only takes one unhinged child to inflict horrific pain. Times have changed, and I think the school board is going to have to come up with some ideas about how to keep up with the changing times, for the safety of our children,” said White.

Charles Anderson, another local parent of students in the district, told board members he believes AI-augmented cameras in schools could enhance security and “prevent incidents before they escalate.”

“Unfortunately, we live in a world where school safety is a growing concern. Traditional security measures, while helpful, often react to incidents after they’ve occurred. AI-augmented cameras offer something different,” he said. “Using machine learning algorithms, these cameras can monitor suspicious behaviors, detect unauthorized access, or alert administrators to potential emergencies such as a fight or an intruder in real time.”

Following comments from community members, the board decided to push back a resolution asking state policymakers for more clarity on how “threats of mass violence” are defined. Board member Ben Connor said he wants the district to hold a town hall meeting at some point in the near future to further discuss how the district should approach that issue, as well as other concerns relating to school safety.

"It's written two different ways, so it needs to be clarified. And I'm not even asking for someone to clarify it. I'm asking for the Tennessee General assembly, in this resolution, to clarify it," Connor said in a report from WTVC. "I couldn't, in good conscience, have asked for a vote on it when I had parents saying what they did tonight and not understanding what the intention behind this resolution is."

School threats spread on social media by students in particular have become an issue for a number of public schools in Tennessee and across the nation in recent weeks.

Last week, Rutherford County Schools leaders announced that several students had been arrested for spreading false threats, and Williamson County Schools sent parents an email the week before to debunk claims of a “school threat” list.

Threats against Memphis-Shelby County Schools last week led to at least five arrests, according to MSCS leaders.