News Center

To welcome the start of a new school year, VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Facts & Faith Fridays hosted a roundtable discussion about safety with Richmond-area school leaders. Superintendents Mervin Daugherty, Ed.D., Chesterfield County Public Schools, Amy Cashwell, Ed.D., Henrico County Public Schools, and Jason Kamras, Richmond Public Schools, shared their insights on the unique challenges facing school systems today, ways to improve family engagement and new approaches to ensuring safe environments for students.

Before the roundtable began, Maria Thomson, Ph.D., director of community engagement in research at Massey, shared information about a community-driven research initiative in Virginia. The Chickahominy TRUTH project seeks to understand the structural and individual-level contributors to the cancer risk perceptions and experiences of Charles City County residents, many of whom are members of the Chickahominy tribe. Massey researchers are collaborating with the tribe to conduct interviews, offer complimentary water testing in homes, map private wells and conduct surveys.

Thomson was joined by a member of the Chickahominy tribal leadership, Susann Brown, who was the first to bring her concerns to Massey’s attention. “We started this journey because we had such a high incidence of cancer cases in our community, and my mom was one of those cases,” said Brown. “We have no way to attribute anything that caused her cancer. If I could spare one person from having to go through the pain that I went through, this project was worth all the work.”

Arnethea Sutton, Ph.D., a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control research program at Massey, moderated the school safety panel discussion. The three supervisors noted many commonalities in their concerns and plans for school safety, all echoing a basic tenet: Schools are a microcosm of the surrounding community, so the safety challenges of the surrounding city or county will be mirrored in its schools.

Mental health has been an increasing concern in young people, especially after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are normalizing conversations around mental health and wellness, really understanding that more students were facing a crisis in this area and offering safe spaces for [students] in our schools,” said Cashwell. “Safe schools are places where every student knows at least one trusted adult they can go to if they’re finding themselves in crisis in any way.”

The superintendents all cited growing numbers of staff to provide crucial wrap-around care to students and families, including counselors, social workers and school psychologists. Daugherty brought up the challenge of improving parental engagement in schools: “The more adults we can get involved with their children, the better the school system is,” he said. “We need the community to invest time in our children—that shows them people care about them.”

Kamras added that Richmond has worked hard to increase its translation and interpretation staff, noting that language can be a barrier for engagement. “We’re also spending a lot of time going to our families rather than having them come to us,” said Kamras. “Community walks in the neighborhood, events at apartment complexes – we’ve found that to be effective because families are busy. If we go to them, we’re more likely to get the engagement that all of us are seeing.”

The leaders shared new programs their districts are piloting, including cell phone pouches, student-to-student PSAs on safety issues and a youth task force to prevent crime in Henrico. Cashwell also praised last year’s Teen Summit RVA, a day of topics generated by students on issues facing teens in the Richmond area, as a successful result of amplifying student voices within the safety sphere.

Calling on members of the faith community, the superintendents encouraged anyone listening to volunteer and get engaged with their local schools, whether they have a child enrolled or not. “Advocate to ensure that our schools get the resources they need to effectively care for our children,” said Kamras. “Pray with your feet, get out there and raise your voices and demand the resources and support our kids deserve.”

Watch the webinar to see the full discussion with Richmond-area school leaders about their efforts to ensure school safety.

Written by: Annie Harris