DANVILLE, Va. – Brian Moran -- the man in charge of public safety in the commonwealth -- surveyed the audience at Tuesday's school safety conference to get an idea of how many police agencies and school districts were in attendance.
The room was split about 50-50, which Moran said is exactly what he hopes for at these meetings.
A recent report by the U.S. Secret Service recommends establishing teams of various school personnel and members of law enforcement to assess potential threats and how to deal with them.
Moran said Virginia is ahead of the curve.
"Virginia has a center for campus and school safety and it does some tremendous work," Moran said.
"What we've been doing is traveling around Virginia -- northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, southwest Virginia. We're here today in Danville to talk about what is going well in Virginia, but then to also learn from the practitioners; school resource officers, we can learn a lot from our education community."
Tuesday's meeting was organized by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services.
Pittsylvania County Superintendent Dr. Mark Jones said he feels good about the safety of the district's schools, in part because the district has nine school resource officers for eight schools, but he said you can never be too safe.
"Anything we can do to collaborate between the different agencies is very important for us," Jones said.
Danville Mayor Alonzo said the conference is part of city council's goal to improve education in the city.
"That's what's so important about this conference today, with all of us being here at this conference, this safety conference; to learn more about safety, to learn more about measures of safety."
An important lesson that could save lives.