HAMILTON COUNTY, Ind. -- Hundreds of concerned parents and community members packed into the Hamilton Southeastern High School auditorium Wednesday night to discuss the question on the minds of many Hoosers, and many Americans: What can be done to better secure our schools?
Cori Smith is a parent, like so many others, who has her child's safety in mind. She has her own ideas of what safer schools could look like.
"I just hope they come up with a plan to keep my baby girl safe," Smith said. "I definitely would like to see metal detectors -- more secure ways to get in our schools."
Putting metal detectors in schools has become a popular idea for some parents.
Marilyn Parrish, a Carmel mother of four and grandmother of 13, is raising money to get metal detectors for every Hamilton County school.
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Hamilton Southeastern Schools Superintendent Dr. Allen Bourff said it would be a "viable option," given the funding and resources were available.
But Ranvir Sandhu, a student at Hamilton Southeastern High School, isn't in favor of the metal detectors.
"I don't want to be going to a jail every day," he said.
Sandhu founded "Stigma Free HSE," a student organization focused on ending the stigma surrounding mental illness.
"Mental health is the problem - not the problem but what causes what is going on -- which is these school shootings," Sandhu said.
Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness was at the meeting to discuss the city's role in school safety, which includes providing school resource officers.
"Schools pay about 50 percent of a portion of those [school resource officers] but any expansion of school resource officers would be on the City of Fishers," he said.
There are seven school resource officers in Hamilton Southeastern Schools across 22 buildings.
"It's unreal to me," Smith said. "I can't believe that there is only that many."
Fadness said the conversation to expand the resource officer count, and how to pay for the expansion, has already started in the district.
"I guess when we talk about kids you can't put a price on it," he said.
Many accounts of the Noblesville West Middle School shooting suggest everything was handled in the best way possible.
But Bourff said Hamilton County school superintendents will still meet to see what can be learned from the incident.
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