A new investigation into Richmond school operations before, during and after the June mass shooting that followed the Huguenot High School graduation, is set to begin after the Richmond School Board approved a third-party review by the Sands Anderson law firm.

The vote was 6-2 during an RPS board meeting Monday at River City Middle School.

Sands Anderson’s review will focus on the state of Richmond Public Schools and its graduation operations to determine any procedures that board members may need to change to prevent similar tragedies.

The firm’s work will be separate from the criminal investigation currently underway by the Richmond Police Department, as well as an investigation of the incident from RPS officials that board members saw as insufficient information to use in response to the shooting.

“We cannot use a summary to dictate how our operations did or did not fail,” board member Shonda Harris-Muhammed said. “It is our due diligence to ensure that we unpack our operations.”

The board’s selection was the latest step of a months-long effort to find an outside group to investigate the potential gaps and oversights that may have led to the shooting in Monroe Park, resulting in the deaths of Huguenot High graduate Shawn D. Jackson and his stepfather Renzo Smith.

Based in Richmond, Sands Anderson was one of two options presented to board members by RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras. Michie Hamlett Attorneys At Law, which is based in Charlottesville and Roanoke, was the other option.

Sands Anderson’s investigation is estimated to cost around $22,000. It will take approximately 50 hours to complete the investigation, though this could change as the review continues, and all findings will be reported to the School Board.

Statements from staff members present during the ceremony also will be included in the review, along with a breakdown of the process and procedures of the RPS Homebound program, which Mr. Jackson participated before his graduation and death.

The vote did not occur without some pushback. Tameeka Jackson-Smith, Mr. Jackson’s mother and Mr. Smith’s wife, voiced her criticisms of the move during the public comment period of the meeting, accusing board members of using the review as a pretext to remove Mr. Kamras from his position and causing unnecessary grief.

“If we’re going to investigate all who have been killed then that would be something, but why use my son?” said Ms. Jackson-Smith, in a statement read by Charles Willis, executive director of United Communities Against Crime. “Don’t use my son’s death for someone else that you’re trying to get out of office. Let my child rest and let us grieve in peace.”

Board members, for their part, stressed the need for an outside overview of their operations to ensure they can identify problems in the RPS system and change or create policy that might have contributed to the shooting, and said that the work already done or in progress can’t meet those goals.

“This would help us implement corrective actions, and that’s something that the police department cannot do,” board member Mariah White said. “I can understand that mother’s pain, but we as a board should have an incident investigation — state of mind for RPS.”

“We don’t want this to happen again, and we have to start and stop somewhere.”

Sands Anderson lawyers and staff involved in the investigation will meet with School Board members in a closed session during their next meeting on Monday, Oct. 19, to provide a plan of action and outline the next steps forward.