Metal detectors in schools: At town hall, Des Moines youth say what they need to feel safe

Ten-year-old Darin Fernandez had only one question for the community leaders and local officials who gathered Monday at a youth town hall meeting at the Masonic Lodge in Highland Park.

"Can we please get metal detectors (in schools)?" asked the soft-spoken fourth grader from Des Moines, his voice quickly washed over with applause from the estimated 100 attendees.

Fernandez, who lost his older brother to gun violence two years ago, told the Des Moines Register he'd been sitting on that question for a while and thought the best place to bring it up would be at the town hall meeting, organized after the shooting at the education nonprofit Starts Right Here three weeks ago. The incident left founder Will Holmes wounded and killed two students, 16-year-old Rashad Carr and 18-year-old Gionni Dameron.

A group of community activists who organized the event said they wanted to create a space for young people and their parents or guardians to talk about the recent incident, listen and support each other or offer solutions to keep their schools and neighborhoods safe.

Fernandez said he wanted to know if there's a way to better screen guests coming into the school buildings and proposed employees do a more thorough background check on visitors — something to help ease his and other students' minds.

"A lot of kids don't want to go to school because they just don't feel safe anymore," added his mother, Jessica Fernandez. "And I don't feel safe sending my son to school."

Other educators, students, parents and residents joined the mother and son and took turns voicing concerns over the issues they saw in their community, the city and Des Moines Public Schools. Some suggested the school district needed to hire more teachers of color and curate more educational programs for students of color, while others pleaded for families, community members and city officials to come together to support the youth.

"We need action," said Beverley McPherson, a social studies teacher at McCombs Middle School who oversees Sisters 4 Success, a leadership program for students of color.

McPherson, who is Black, said she's "tired of talking" and her students have already told her what they want: "They want more of us. They want more of me."

Interim superintendent Matt Smith echoed McPherson. He attended the meeting alongside several leaders including state Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, state Sen. Claire Celsi and Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie.

"We gotta have faculty and staff that reflects the community we serve," Smith said.

More:Starts Right Here's founder was shot helping at-risk kids. It won't stop him, friends say.

Another student at the meeting asked Smith about the district's funds and how it could put more money into making buildings safe than sports facilities and programs.

Smith said the district spends "millions of dollars every year on safety," including installing door locks and placing campus monitors in the middle and high schools, along with updating security software. But he admitted that's "not enough right now."

"We are pouring money into safety," he said. "But I'm also here to listen about what else can we be doing? How else can we spend these dollars maybe differently, maybe more so? What can we do more of, less of and just not at all anymore?"

Lizze'a Wright, a junior at North High School, was among a handful of speakers who touched on the need for more mental health resources in schools. The 16-year-old said she wants faculty and staff to work on fostering better relationships with their students.

"We want teachers to be like, 'Are you OK? What can we do for you? How can we help you?'" she said.

One attendee said stigmas around mental health exist in communities of color, and that culture needs to change, so that youth of color, especially Black youth, have a chance. They need to know, he said, that it's OK to ask for help.

"What we're doing with is a mental health crisis in our community, in our state and in our country," Smith said. "We are dealing with folks in pain and suffering in all facets of their life, and if we're going to solve this, we have to solve it together."

Cownie said the city has pulled together 15 students and formed a youth ambassador group and plans to host another forum with those ambassadors soon.

"The city is listening," he said.

F. Amanda Tugade covers social justice issues for the Des Moines Register. Email her at ftugade@dmreg.com or follow her on Twitter @writefelissa.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines youth express concerns of safety in schools after shooting