Norfolk Public Schools superintendent lays out plan for student safety @EricLevyWTKR reports. wtkr.com/2012/10/03/nor…
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WTKR NewsChannel 3 (@WTKR3) October 03, 2012
Norfolk Public Schools is publicly explaining why officials decided to adjust the football game schedule.
The superintendent of schools also outlined a plan to keep students, and game spectators, safe.
Moving the games to daytime on Saturdays was a decision that, Superintendent Dr. Samuel King says, will allow for more visibility, and will allow for security to have a better handle on the activity that happens before, during, and after the games.
As it stands now, daytime games only affect regular season football, for this year. What happens next year, according to the superintendent, is still being planned.
All of this comes after, police say, 19-year-old David White was gunned down by a 15-year-old boy who he knew, after a game matchup at Booker T. Washington High School. That teen was arrested and charged on October 2.
At a news conference Wednesday morning, the Superintendent of Schools says while there was plenty of security at the game on Friday night, additional security will be at the remaining games this season. The extra security will include sheriff deputies and police officers paid for with the existing budget. The district says moving the games to daytime might help prevent tragedies, like the shooting of David White, from happening again.
Dr. King stressed that games are safe.
"Our game, that we held that (Friday) night, within the game, was safe. We didn't have that kind of occurrence within the game. However, we are responsible beyond that boundary as well."
Dr. King, as well as Norfolk's police chief and Sheriff, called on parents and citizens to take action and become mentors within the schools.
That sort of volunteer work, they say, is another way to put an end to violence.
