NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — After a tragic shooting took the lives of three children and three adults at The Covenant School, Metro Council members are pushing to review school security, but are finding issues getting the plans passed immediately.
Council Member Courtney Johnston introduced a resolution directing the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) to evaluate the safety plans and measures of Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS). She said this comes as parents are not convinced about security at MNPS following Covenant.
“The emails and the phone calls that I’m getting are from people saying, ‘We don’t feel safe. We don’t believe that our schools are safe, but we don’t know what to ask for,'” said Johnston.
The review would end with a series of district-wide recommendations, including capital improvements, professional training and human resources. Some security measures would be school specific.
The resolution tells MNPD to include any legislative recommendations they find beneficial to school safety, regardless of what level of government the legislation would stem from.
The information would be made public according to the resolution; however, some details would be confidential.
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Council Member Jeff Syracuse said both MNPD and MNPS were in support of moving forward with the resolution.
During debate, council members on the education committee said security reviews are already done on an annual basis, the safety plans are led by MNPD, and this could expose some safety information that should be private to not reveal any potential weaknesses.
Ultimately, the resolution was voted down, 19 to 14.
Johnston said she’s confused why other council members do not support her efforts.
“The purpose is, let’s just everybody come to the table and have an open and honest conversation about what we need to be doing,” said Johnston. “I was surprised that anybody would vote against that.”
This isn’t the end of the conversation. Syracuse said he’s planning three special meetings to discuss school safety at length in the near future.
