Richmond Public School leaders have demanded a third-party investigation into the events and RPS actions leading up to the mass shooting in Monroe Park following the Huguenot High School graduation ceremony on June 6 that led to the deaths of graduate Shawn Jackson and his stepfather, Renzo Smith.

The motion for the investigation passed in a 5-2 vote with one abstaining during the School Board meeting Monday evening at Huguenot High.

“We cannot, nor can the superintendent, police ourselves when such tragedies such as this have occurred,” said board member Shonda Harris-Muhammed, who introduced the motion.

The investigation’s report, when completed, will include examinations of the graduation procedures in place during the day of the shooting, statements from staff present and a review of the homebound program that Mr. Jackson had participated in.

The motion came amid rising tensions during the meeting, as board members and RPS leadership and staff discussed care and safety initiatives for the upcoming school year. The board also approved a 15-point care and safety plan in a 5-2 vote, with one abstaining, that includes updated and clearer safety protocols, more funding and training for mental health and care professionals as well as a pilot program restricting student cell phone use.

However, questions and concerns around safety and the prevention of future tragedies still remained for board members ahead of the start of school next week, leading to the requests for further investigation of the incident.

“This is an RPS school, it originated at the school, we do have people affected at the school and they know how this started,” board member Mariah White said. “It just didn’t start at graduation.”

While an internal report on the shooting already had been submitted, board members Dr. Harris-Muhammed and Kenya Gibson were unsatisfied with its findings based on their experience of the event and review of the report, citing what they saw as inconsistencies in security checks and moni- toring during and after the ceremony.

RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras, for his part, sought to counter these claims and requests, pointing to the internal report as providing sufficient answers for the ques- tions board members had throughout the discussion. He also pushed back against criticisms of the report and a perceived lack of transparency as minimizing the work done by his staff.

“You were given a report,” Mr. Kamras said. “If there are items that you would like additional information on, I am happy

to provide them to you to the extent that I can, but I will not abide a public claim that you were not provided with an investigation report because it is simply not true.”

Tensions rose so high that at one point in the discussions Ms. White called for an amendment to the motion for the third- party investigation that would suspend Mr. Kamras from his duties if the investigation didn’t happen. That amendment was ultimately withdrawn.

Meanwhile, board members Elizabeth Doerr and Cheryl Burke pointed to the in-progress investigation of the shooting by the Richmond Police Department as reason to not approve and start another. Ms. Doerr also pointed to the “potentially traumatizing” nature of the RPD investigation on RPS staff and teachers, while Ms.

Burke questioned if RPS had the funds for the investigation being sought, highlight- ing instead the need for state and federal action on gun violence.

Dr. Harris-Muhammed was unmoved by the arguments.

“It is not about RPD and the Commonwealth’s Attorney. It is about how we run the operations in our school division,” she said. “We have the funds — if we can purchase 40 vans and this and that and this and that, we can set aside funding to have a third-party investigation because we cannot police ourselves.”

Mr. Kamras must present two options of companies that can complete the investigation for review and approval by Sunday, Oct. 1, with the findings due at the School Board’s second meeting that same month.