School board and law enforcement officials pivot to transparency, hosting a community conversation to bridge the gap between security protocols and student violence.
In a high school cafeteria where the empty chairs vastly outnumbered the attendees, Plant City’s top officials spent Tuesday night offering something parents have been demanding: a direct, unvarnished conversation about guns in schools.
The meeting, organized by Hillsborough County School Board Member Patti Rendon, was sparked by a string of recent incidents involving students bringing weapons onto the Plant City High School campus. Rather than a formal presentation, the event functioned as an open-floor dialogue between a sparse crowd of concerned parents and a massive panel of leadership, including Mayor Nate Kilton, Vice Mayor Jason Jones, Hillsborough County Public Schools Chief John Newman, and high-ranking officials from both the Plant City Police Department and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office…