Parents in North Carolina concerned about school safety as Georgia reels from mass shooting

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- For many parents in North Carolina, school safety remains top of mind just weeks into the new school year; a deadly school shooting in Georgia on Wednesday has some of them shaken.

"You want to say to your kids, it won't be real, but in the back of your mind ... you never know," Rebeka Lassiter said.

Lassiter's two children just had a lockdown drill that day in Durham County, a safety procedure taken seriously in today's climate.

"One of my friends was actually in a drill, and the whole time she's texting me and she's scared, and we're praying for her," Kennesha Myrick Bragg said.

The Wake County parent and former teacher said safety concerns are part of why she left the classroom.

"Part of the reason why I don't teach anymore is because of how dangerous it is, and after seeing what happened yesterday, it really just it breaks your heart," Myrick Bragg said. "Thinking that any day something like that could happen to me is terrifying. It's terrifying as a parent, and I imagine it's terrifying as a student."

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School districts in the Triangle have shared their safety protocols with ABC11. Those include anonymous reporting systems where students can anonymously report things that they may see.

The White House has also called for tougher gun laws in reaction to the latest mass shooting, but for some parents such as Lassiter, it's becoming more urgent to find ways to mitigate the threat of mass shootings.

"Safe locks, better background checks, all of those things," Lassiter said.

While some schools have increased security, such as door locks and metal detectors, some experts said it was key to focus on people, which Lassiter said she tries to do at home with her children.

"I think sharing and being open about our emotions and as adults, being open about our emotions to our kids as well, just shows them that they're healthy and that they are something that we need to express and that there's also places we can express them in a healthy manner," Lassiter said. "I firmly believe that the social emotional health of our children is really important ... if we could have more people (in schools), I would be so much happier."

In the Georgia shooting, authorities interviewed the suspect, then 13, back in 2023 about alleged threats to commit a school shooting, according to the FBI.

"At that time, there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state, or federal levels," the FBI said on Wednesday.