In response a loaded gun and knife on campus at Dwyer High School in Palm Beach Gardens recently, the principal hosted a closed door forum Wednesday with parents to work toward possible solutions.
The Palm Beach County School District didn’t allow media to go into the meeting, because they said it would get in the way of an honest dialogue.
Daniel and Renee Tucker’s daughter is a junior at Dwyer.
“We’re concerned parents. Whenever anything like this happens, we’re always asking around to other parents and how they feel about it as well. And that’s why we’re coming to the meeting tonight to find out what the school is going to do about it,” Daniel said.
Last Friday, a loaded gun was found on a cabinet as school was being let out.
About two weeks before that, a student brought a 12-inch knife to school and threatened a classmate. The student was arrested.
“Regularly I ask my daughter if she’s safe and she says, yeah. She went 9 years to a private school before she came here, so we plan and want our daughter to stay here,” Renee said.
The Tuckers and dozens of parents met with the principal for about two hours.
“I thought the principal did a good job of answering the questions,” said Laurie George, whose son is a freshman at Dwyer.
“A lot of parents asked about metal detectors. There’s pros and cons to that and so they suggested ideas that were more beneficial,” Laurie said.
Like adding cameras and extra police officers.
“The academics here are fantastic, the teachers are fantastic,” Laurie said. “A loaded gun is a scary thing when your kid is going to school there so I really wanted to volunteer my time, figure out what we can do as parents to prevent this from happening again.”
The school district declined our request to interview the principal and for comment on the meeting.
