NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — There were a litany of questions raised after it was discovered a 6-year-old shot his teacher.
One among them: How did the gun get into school?
In the year 365 days since that shooting, Newport News Public Schools has made more than $1.5 million in security equipment investments alone. Metal detectors now must be passed through to enter into any of the city’s 41 schools, and students must carry clear backpacks.
There are now nearly 120 security officers on payroll for the district, allowing for at least two to be stationed in every preschool and elementary school, three in most middle schools and six in every high school, according to Michelle Price, executive director of public information and community involvement for Newport News Public Schools.
While school security officers are not armed, middle and high schools have an assigned full-time school resource officer who is employed by the police department.
Since the metal detectors became mandatory following the shooting of 25-year-old Abby Zwarner, no guns have been detected.
“Firearms recovered is the only data NNPD keeps statistics on in terms of weapons found on school property,” said Matt Michalec, a spokesperson for the Newport News Police Department. “For this current school year, there has been one reported firearm recovered from a Newport News public school. It was an incidental finding by a staff member in a field behind one school in September.”
But is this all making students and staff feel safer?
“So the weapons detecting systems are another layer of security,” said Robert Stewart Jr. executive director of crisis planning, prevention and environmental risk management for Newport News Public Schools. “The training for our security staff is another layer of security. And when you keep adding layers of security on top of things, we’re safer.”
He was hired following the shooting and prioritized preparedness.
Amy Kovac, a reading specialist for Newport News Public Schools who restrained the six-year-old after the shooting, said she has seen a noticeable change.
“I think it’s being taken more seriously than maybe in the past because younger children sometimes, you know, they think, ‘oh, a little kid can’t do that,’ and now we know they can,” Kovac said. “I’ve seen good changes and it makes me comfortable to continue to work here.”