SUFFOLK, Va. — Two school board members of the Suffolk Public Schools division say they have concerns about how questions concerning plans to improve safety following an intruder incident at an elementary school were handled by the school division’s leadership. Tyron Riddick and Dr. DawnMarie Brittingham said they were representing their own views and were not speaking on behalf of the school board.
Watch full interview: Suffolk school board members talk safety, transparency after intruder incident
“Why would we not be transparent [about improving safety]?” said Dr. Brittingham, elected to represent the Holy Neck Borough of the Suffolk Public Schools division, in response to the superintendent’s refusal to publicly address questions about safety for weeks following the intruder incident. Her borough includes Kilby Shores Elementary School, where an intruder trapped two students inside a bathroom on the last day of school. Police said the man, who was later arrested for trespassing, was unarmed and did not physically injure anyone.
“We received two emails about the situation,” said Dr. Brittingham. “We received an email when the lockdown happened, and we received an email when the lockdown was completed. And that was all the communication.”
She continued, “Until you aired the video, I had not seen anything.”
Watch: Suffolk school leaders won’t answer News 3’s questions about school intruder video
Riddick, elected to represent the Suffolk Borough of the Suffolk Public Schools division, also said he first saw the video when News 3 aired it on July 2, more than two weeks after the incident.
“Let's be clear what happened. A man […] ran on our school property, got past staff, barricaded himself in a bathroom, and was able to be in the bathroom for 11 minutes and some seconds with students. That's a major concern to me,” said Riddick. “A lot can happen in 11 minutes.”
Watch: Parents react to Suffolk elementary school intruder on last day of school
“Why not share this information [about improving safety]?” said Riddick. “I have people in my borough who have been reaching out to me over and over again [saying] ‘Hey, what happened? How are we keeping our kids safe?’”
Riddick and Dr. Brittingham agreed to speak with me after the school division’s superintendent, Dr. John B. Gordon, criticized News 3 for asking how the school division planned to improve safety at Kilby Shores Elementary School after we obtained surveillance video of the incident from an open records request.
“I still don’t understand why we are now expected to share what new safety measures have been put in place,” said Dr. Gordon during a school board meeting on July 11. “Why would we address and open up potentially Pandora’s box to have another security breach to be able to discuss any new safety protocols?”
Watch: Citizen members of Suffolk Public Schools safety audit committee express concern over lack of transparency
The meeting on July 11 marked the first time Dr. Gordon publicly addressed the June 14 incident at Kilby Shores Elementary School by sharing a timeline of the 11-minute-long ordeal.
Dr. Gordon also used several minutes of his presentation to express disdain over News 3’s questions, which included:
- Were the lapses in security as depicted in the video addressed?
- Did the teacher/ staff member seen holding the door while the man made his way inside get reprimanded, or have to undergo additional security training?
- Will there be additional security measures added to the school ahead of the next school year?
- Will there be additional security training for teachers and staff ahead of the next school year?
“I didn't see an issue with any of your questions,” said Riddick, who said his own questions about what happened at Kilby Shores Elementary School were met with silence. “The Constitution gives you the right to ask your questions. I see the issue when the questions were not answered.”
Riddick continued, explaining how he hoped the division leadership would have responded, “As much information that I can share without compromising safety, I would share it with you, because I owe it to you to share that information with the public. We’re protecting your kids when they’re in our care.
“I think that you should be able to ask questions, valid questions, and get a response,” said Dr. Brittingham. “There is a place that we can have these conversations [about safety measures] without revealing the secret sauce, per se.”
During the July 11 school board meeting, Dr. Gordon said, “I have said from day one, and the board has also supported this statement, that we will not address safety and security measures in the public eye.”
Board member Dr. Judith Brooks-Buck agreed, saying, “The police said we did what we're supposed to do.”
She continued, “It was a ‘none of your business’ moment.”
Watch: News 3 fact-checks claims made by Superintendent Dr. John B. Gordon about our reporting
However, several recordings of public school board meetings reveal Dr. Gordon and the school board have discussed school safety in open forums. For example, during a school board meeting on June 8, 2023, Dr. Gordon explained a planned active shooter drill, and said, “When it comes to safety and security we are going to take things to the next level.”
Additionally, during a school board meeting on June 13 — the night before the Kilby Shores Elementary School intruder incident — Dr. Gordon said the school division was preparing to install an artificial intelligence gun detection system.
“The Zero Eyes technology actually was a part of my budget request that will actually go into effect,” he said on June 13.
“So it's not a matter of we can't talk about safety,” said Dr. Brittingham. “Because if that was the case, we wouldn't have these presentations publicly in our five o'clock work hour.”
While Riddick and Brittingham agreed to speak with me after the July 11 school board meeting, they previously did not respond to my calls or emails following our release of the surveillance video of the intruder incident. In fact, Dr. Gordon praised the entire school board during the July 11 meeting for not responding to my inquiries, saying, “I want to thank you to all of our staff and administrators and school board policy for when the same investigative reporter reached out to staff, reached out to our school board members, that no one responded.”
During my interview with Riddick and Dr. Brittingham on July 17, I asked, “Why did you feel it was important to speak with me now?”
Riddick said, “The reason why I did not speak up sooner is because I wanted to give the respect and time to the chair [of the school board] and the superintendent to speak, but then when I noticed that a speech was not coming, I got upset because this is something that our constituents needed some resolve to.”
Dr. Brittingham added, “I want to be able to be transparent. I want to be accountable, and through this situation I didn’t have the information in order to do those things, and that was very concerning to me.”
“Yes, this was a security issue. Yes, this was an event that we all wanted to make sure would never happen, and hopefully would never happen again, but there also were no injuries,” said Dr. Gordon during the July 11 school board meeting.
Riddick said during our interview, “We're grateful that there are no injuries, but how do we prevent this from happening going forward?”
The surveillance video reveals the intruder was able to gain entry into the school by slipping into a door being held open by a teacher, who was facing the opposite direction to keep an eye on the children on the playground.
I said to Riddick and Dr. Brittingham, “You see [the teacher] pause for a moment and realize something’s not right. She throws her body on the [bathroom] door, putting herself in harm’s way [to get the children out].”
“We agree that the teacher should be praised, from the aspect of how she jumped into action,” said Riddick.
The teacher, the school’s principal, and several other staff are also seen trying to gain access to the bathroom where the intruder was hiding.
“Complete gratitude to the staff for their bravery, for their quick reactions, for their effort to get into that bathroom," Dr. Brittingham said.
While commending the staff, Riddick and Brittingham raised concerns about two glaring safety issues: a lack of barrier between the playground and the community, and the lack of a School Resource Officer assigned to the school.
Regarding the playground, I said to Riddick and Dr. Brittingham, “The way that playground is situated, it’s open facing to the community. There’s no fencing, there is no barrier.”
Riddick responded, “I do believe had there been a fence, it would have slowed the individual down.”
I also observed from the video, and Dr. Gordon’s timeline of events, that it took six minutes for a School Resource Officer to arrive before successfully convincing the intruder to exit the bathroom.
“It did take six minutes for an officer to get in, which is a quick response time,” said Riddick. “But a lot can happen in six minutes.”
“My understanding is that the police officer that came to Kilby Shores was actually the SRO at Forest Glen Middle School,” said Dr. Brittingham. “So having an SRO that's covering more than one school is a concern.”
Dr. Brittingham and Riddick said barriers to getting officers in every school include a staffing shortage within the Suffolk Police Department and funding from the City of Suffolk for the school division’s budget.
“I would say $2 million towards those salaries for 21 dedicated SROs would be a good way for us moving forward,” said Dr. Brittingham. “It's not going to fix everything, but at least having [an officer] that [is] dedicated to being there, so that when situations like this happen, it's not six minutes, it's 30 seconds or a minute before they arrive.”
Riddick did praise Dr. Gordon’s leadership for training and placing several School Security Officers in schools throughout the division. SSOs are staff trained in security measures, although they are not armed.
While Dr. Gordon did reveal during the July 11 school board meeting that the school’s safety team has modified procedures when students and staff exit the building, he said he had another reason for keeping a lid on the public discussion about safety.
“I also have to think about the mental well-being of the two students that had to suffer the most. That’s the reason there was no comment,” Dr. Gordon said.
“I understand we don't want persons to relive the trauma,” said Riddick. “However, I have received countless calls [from other parents] asking […] ‘What are we doing to keep my babies safe?
"I have people in my borough who have been reaching out to me over and over again about," Hey, what happened? How are we keeping our kids safe?”
“Certainly being able to communicate to the staff, and the students, and the parents that yes, we have safety measures and we are going to put these in place, would have brought the temperature down a great deal,” Dr. Brittingham said.
I did extend another opportunity for an interview with Dr. Gordon, but he declined.
As for the intruder, Suffolk police arrested Vontrail Thorpe. He’s facing trespassing and kidnapping charges. According to court records, Thorpe admitted to using drugs within the 24 hours before the incident.
