FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. — In the aftermath of the Texas school shooting, law enforcement in Forsyth County is helping put parents at ease by adding extra patrol officers to schools, specifically elementaries.
This is the same community that saw its own school shooting last fall.
“Once you start expecting something, you start accepting it,” Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough said.
But acceptance of school shootings is not an option for Kimbrough.
“When we get to a place where we no longer accept this, that’s when you’re going to see change,” he said.
The sheriff is treating that change with renewed urgency, even as the school year comes to a close.
“I’ve got about two weeks left. I can't have that happen here, so I sat down with my guys and I said, 'Hey here's what we are going to do. Everybody that carries a badge and a gun from me on down are going to be in the streets tomorrow,'” Kimbrough said.
After Tuesday's mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, parents all over the nation woke up concerned for their own children.
It hits especially close to home in Kimbrough's community.
It hasn't even been a year since one student was shot and killed at Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem.
A classmate was later charged, but the fear that parents felt have resurfaced.
Kimbrough spent Wednesday visiting schools, elementaries in particular, to ensure officers were in place.
“Not saying that something is going to happen, but the fact that the presence is there, that means a lot. Sometimes we don’t realize what people's presence or someone's presence means to so many people,” he said.
On a typical day, elementary schools in the area don't have school resource officers.
“It would be nice to do that year-round, but we don't. It would be nice to have a conversation where we may consider using outside resources for security on the exterior of buildings,” Kimbrough said.
The sheriff says that could include updating their contract with Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools to add SROs to elementary schools.
“We look at it from the perspective of an SRO is needed in our middle school and high schools because of the age of our kids, but there’s a whole other dynamic to that because an elementary school is very vulnerable because you’re talking about kids who are just figuring out their names, how to spell their names, let alone fight or flight mode, how to run or hide," Kimbrough said. "So to me if I had it my way, every school in this country, every school in this community would be secured.”