BEDFORD, Va. – In a Tuesday meeting, Bedford County Public School officials and a school safety committee made up of parents, teachers, administrators, first responders, and law enforcement talked about enhancing school security.
"It's why we really include a number of parents on this advisory team, so we can keep regular touch with at least some of them and get that perspective in our planning," Mac Duis, chief operations officer, said.
Duis said, they want to stay ahead of any potential threat. In groups, they put together realistic scenarios to consider in their training.
"These types of exercises are done widely in schools, business, with law enforcement. Just to think through all the possibilities that we can so we can prepare," Duis said.
School leaders say they've enhanced security at all their schools, implementing a one way in-one way out policy, installing new digital cameras in their buildings and using a new technology app, called COPSync911, to communicate with police.
"We continue to practice with that, work with that program with them and we've found out that it's even faster than a 911 call," Duis said.
"All of us have a role to be vigilant and to report things that seem out of the ordinary. and of course our administration working with our sheriff's department," Doug Schuch, Bedford County Public Schools superintendent, said.
School leaders say they don't have any immediate plans to make any major changes, but will continue to work on finding grants for more improvements.