GREENVILLE, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- The start of the school year also brings some anxiety for parents and some students with the tragic news of yet another deadly school shooting. A local superintendent has been spearheading efforts to keep our schools safe. His mission took him all the way to Washington D.C. this summer with a group of administrators who have experienced gun violence firsthand, over the years.
Michael Bennett, the Superintendent of the Greenville Central School District, explained, "A lot of things can activate memories for people who come to work every day. Think school safety becomes a big issue because we've seen so much of it in the news."
Bennett, who worked in the East Greenbush Central school district in 2004, speaks from experience. "There are a lot of things we don't understand in regard to mental health. In my 20 years of dealing with my incident and dealing with what happened over at Columbia for all of us, I've focused a lot on mental well-being, making sure people have built relationships that people feel comfy to talk to us."
The aftermath of his experience has led him in more recent years to work with the Principal Recovery Network, a national network that includes the former principals of Columbine and Marjory Stoneman Douglas high schools. All administrators with one unfortunate thing in common: they've all experienced gun violence in their buildings. "I've brought a lens of mental health to our group and the importance of it in recovery," Bennett said.
Before the start of this new school year, PRN took a trip to Washington. "It was really a whirlwind this past June," Bennett said of the trip.
It included meeting with education department, justice department, homeland security and their efforts even getting the attention of the White House. "It's humbling. It's an amazing experience to know that we are making that level of difference where the White House is inviting us in and wanting to hear from us."
Their focus remains on supporting administrators, teachers and students affected by tragedies of a school shooting and looking closer at threat assessment protocols. "I was happy to bring the experiences we have in New York with the governor mandating that we have threat assessment teams across the state," Bennett relayed.
Their advocacy has led the education department to put PRN's guide to recovery in their letter anytime there is a school shooting.
It's a resource to help connect and support administrators to people who have sadly been through it before. Bennett hopes their conversations at the federal level also lead to more avenues of funding to support schools both in physical safety and guarding mental health.
"Without our mental health, we are less prepared to do the work that we need to do," he said. "We are all dealing with the same things whether we are a rural school or suburban school."
This year in his own district, Bennett explained the schools will be using the new Raptor System to let visitors in. It will be an added layer of security. Greenville will also roll out a new anti-bullying reporting app in October to help support their students.
