Richneck Elementary, the school where a 6-year-old shoots teacher, reopened its gates Monday to students with a new administration and new safety protocols.
teachers file back in here. classes resume in about an hour. we ve been talking to a couple of teachers off-camera, as they made their way in this morning. one of them just told me she s excited to be back here. a very significantly enhanced security footprint in place here at ridgeneck elementary for this first day back. they re making the students carry around clear, transparent backpacks, not allowing them to bring their regular backpacks to school. two state of the art metal detectors are now in place. we ve seen several newport news police officers, including the police chief, steve drew, here at the entrance, greeting people as they ve come in. now, police officers, school resource officers will not be deployed here, but they will have security officers, other security officers here from now on, as well. they did have that imprint there before the shooting, but it was one school officer splitting duties between the school, that will now be enhanced. we talked to one parent of a
child whose son was in the same class as the shooter, thomas britton, in whether he has confidence in sending his child back to the school. here s what he had to say. i think with new administration, this administration that listens to teacher, listens to concerns, and acts on those concerns, you know, treat threats as credible until they re not. not the other way of, you have to do it before the threat is credible. this is probably going to be the safest school in the area for a good long while, kind of an ironic twist. so, i have no misgivings about sending them back. and we ve also learned that the principal who was here at richneck on the day of the shooting, her name, brianna foster newton has been reassigned to another job in the school system. school officials not telling us exactly what that job is. but she is no longer here. the vice principal had already previously resigned after the shooting. and that s what parents told us over the last few weeks, brian. they felt lik
The school board last week terminated the superintendent and the principal of Richneck Elementary School has since left. Now, three weeks later, the school is reopening.
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