NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — In the aftermath of the deadly shooting at Antioch High School, city leaders have started evaluating ways to prevent future tragedies. Many hope a protocol review will reveal any holes in the system.
Metro Council approved a resolution requiring the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) to conduct and release evaluations on the safety plans for Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS).
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“I’ve heard from a number of teachers in West [Nashville] who have concerns about school safety preparations,” Metro Councilmember for District 20, Rollin Horton, said last week.
The resolution requests “the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department to conduct an evaluation of the safety plans and measures for Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools.”
“Right now they just know that they don’t feel safe. What can they ask for? What can they fight for?” Metro Councilmember for District 25 Courtney Johnston told News 2. “This is going to give them the tools that they need to advocate in a productive manner.”
Johnston was one of the most vocal council members in favor of the resolution pushing for the evaluations.
“I think just the frequency of it, at this point, is unacceptable and it is alarming,” she said.
Johnston urged for a similar evaluation after the Covenant School shooting after six people were killed, including three students. However, the resolution had failed at the time.
“The fact that we had students and teachers of Antioch High School that said they were not surprised that this happened — not only in general, but with this certain student — I think we’ve had multiple points of failure that we will obviously and hopefully learn from,” Johnston said.
Many of those who voted against the resolution, pointed to how the state already has requirements in place, mandating that schools report safety findings to the Department of Homeland Security every year. However, Johnston says she wants to see more done on a local level.
“The most important politics and policy is local politics and policy because that’s what affects our daily lives,” Johnson said.
The safety analysis would evaluate safety plan components, including how often trainings should be conducted, who should conduct trainings and what infrastructure — including technology — is in place.
“It’s valuable to ask our safety experts, which is MNPD, what are the measures that we should be taking to make sure that our schools are as safe as they can possibly be?” Johnston said.
Just one day after the resolution passed in Metro Council, Mayor Freddie O’Connell was asked his thoughts on the new measure.
“From our vantage point, Metro Nashville Police Department [and] Metro Schools have been fairly aligned on everything from school resource officers to technology deployment,” O’Connell said. “This was not something I was actually concerned about. It’s not clear to me how necessary the resolution is.”
Johnston told News 2 she expects the MNPD to release findings soon, but specific information about particular schools will most likely be redacted in order to protect MNPS from future attacks.
