Emotions ran high during Monday’s Richmond School Board meeting, as members discussed and argued over the proper path to improve school safety, following multiple security failures, shootings and deaths this year.

The meeting at Thomas Jefferson High School was the first since the June 6 shooting in Monroe Park following a graduation ceremony that ended with the deaths of Huguenot High School graduate Shawn D. Jackson and his stepfather, Renzo Smith.

For board member Kenya Gibson the current situation for RPS called for an immediate response and solutions from the board.

“As a parent, I’m scared,” Ms. Gibson said. “As a district, we are falling short, and failure at this point looks like loss of life.”

Ms. Gibson referenced not just the graduation shooting, but other instances of gun violence RPS has seen this year, including the discovery of loaded guns in schools, shootings at Westover Hills Elementary and George Wythe High, and more. She suggested the board hire an auditor focused on safety and security, and encouraged thoughts from other board members.

“They are the district’s checks and balances, and it is glaringly obvious that there are things that are not getting checked,” Ms. Gibson said. “We’re only going to make a difference if we are honest that there are problems that need to be addressed.”

Board members Jonathan Young and Mariah White had their own ideas about improving school safety, including directly tackling the impact of gangs and increasing school security officers.

Others members cautioned not to placing the burden for solving what they saw as a community problem solely on the School Board. Nor should the board be too quick in approving proposals to tackle this issue without a plan.

“This should not be a reactive conversation,” Nicole Jones said. “This is a conversation that should be happening on a regular basis because these are the situations that our young people are dealing with every day.”

“What goes on in the neighborhood, the community spills over into school,” Dawn Page said. “I do not want to make a hasty decision.”

In pushing against the reluctance of some board members to quickly imple- ment proposed solutions and ideas, Ms. Gibson’s voice filled with emotion as she urged immediate action.

“We must make a hasty decision,” Ms. Gibson said. “We have had a student die, and we are going to sit on this stage and say ‘I’m not going to make a hasty decision’?”

Soon after, Ms. Gibson introduced a motion for the board to hire a safety audi- tor that failed 2-7, with only Ms. Gibson and Mr. Young voting in favor.

As noted by board member Shonda Harris-Muhammed, RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras has 30 days from the shooting to complete an internal investigation about the shooting. RPS also has hired John W. Beazley as the new director of safety and security. Further discussion about his role is scheduled for the next School Board meeting.

Board members also approved new names for Ginter Park Elementary School, John B. Cary Elementary, Binford Middle

School and George Wythe High School during Monday’s meeting to remove the schools’ association with their current, Confederate or slave-owning namesakes.

Ginter Park Elementary will be renamed Frances W. McClenney Elementary. Mrs. McClenney’s name replaced Northside Elementary as the initial choice for Ginter Park. That choice had previously led to some contentious discussion during the School Board meeting weeks earlier, given Mrs. McClenney’s role in the clustering of white students in integrated schools decades earlier.

John B. Cary Elementary is now Lois Harrison-Jones Elementary.

Dogwood Middle is the new name for Binford Middle.

George Wythe High is now the Richmond High School of the Arts.