This week’s violence at a Knoxville high school is not only the first fatal shooting inside of a U.S. school since the pandemic began a year ago, it’s also the first since Tennessee poured millions of dollars into fortifying its campuses.
In 2018, then-Gov. Bill Haslam ordered a comprehensive security review of more than 1,800 public schools across Tennessee after a shooter killed 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida. The state also provided districts with $35 million in safety grants, mostly to improve their aging school buildings with upgrades like security cameras, beefing up front entrances and fixing or replacing broken locks or outdated doors.
Monday’s shooting in Haslam’s hometown again spotlighted the issue of school safety in Tennessee – albeit during a year when the safety focus has been more about public health than armed intruders due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Authorities say that the shooting happened around 3:15 Monday afternoon in a bathroom at Austin-East Magnet High School after police responded to a report of a student who was possibly armed. The student was killed and an officer was wounded in an ensuing encounter.
It’s not known how the student may have gotten a firearm inside the school.