Licensed social workers and more prevention programs are two things Chesterfield County School District administrators would like to have to make schools safer.

Superintendent John Williams presented these and other goals to improve safety at a public forum last Thursday at Cheraw Intermediate School. The forum was held following two gun-related incidents at the school within the past three weeks.

On April 21, a third-grader brought an unloaded 9 mm pistol to school. On April 28, a student was suspended for claiming to have a pellet gun clip. No one was harmed in either incident.

"Cheraw Intermediate School is one of the best schools we have in Chesterfield County," Williams said. "It is full of great teachers. They work hard, they're dedicated and the children learn. One incident does not make this a bad school."

Williams said a school safety committee is being formed to review "where we are and what we need to be doing."

While he maintained Chesterfield County's schools are safe, he said one area that needs improvement is prevention. The schools need to be able to identify at-risk students early and get them in the environment they need for learning.

To provide early intervention, the school district is looking into employing licensed social workers and reducing the student-guidance counselor ratio, as well as increasing the number of student resource officers (SRO's). There are SRO's in all four high schools in the county, and they used to be employed at the middle schools, but decreased funding over the past years forced the district to limit their numbers. Last Thursday Williams said the district needs to put officers back in the middle schools.

Williams also addressed enhancing the training of the officers, as well as teachers, counselors and administrators in dealing with future offenders.

Parents, teachers and others who attended the forum responded well to the idea of social workers in the school. One member of the audience said she would also like to see guidance counselors involved when parents meet with school administrators about student behavioral problems. "We need to utilize our guidance counselors to work with the families to get the child into a healthy environment," she said.

Parents also asked about putting up fences or installing metal detectors at schools. Frank Patterson, assistant superintendent of Chesterfield County Schools, said putting fences around schools is not possible because of fire safety codes.

As for metal detectors, installing them would be costly, and Williams questioned their feasibility and effectiveness with 7,000 students and 1,000 employees in the district. Every middle and high school has a "wand," a handheld metal detecting device, but because of the incident at Cheraw Intermediate, Williams said the district will consider getting some for the lower grades as well.

Other ideas to improve school safety include school uniforms, netted book bags and suspension academies.

Williams said many of these measures will require more money, and the district would be looking for federal, state and local funding.

"We do not have funds to fully implement the things I want to do," he said, adding that some money should be available through safe school grants and the federal government to ease the burden on local taxpayers.

Law enforcement officers joined Williams and other school administrators at the forum to answer questions, particularly the handgun incident. In response to the question "How will this be prevented from happening again," Cheraw Police Chief J.A. Graves and Sheriff Sam Parker shared a similar view: start at home.

"This is momma and daddy's fault. Not school administrators' fault and not law enforcement's fault," Parker said.

His comments about parental responsibilities received a round of Amen's from the audience.

Wylie Cox may be reached at wyliecox@thecherawchronicle.com.