Delegates Steve Landes and Dickie Bell visit Augusta County Schools

Delegates Steve Landes and Dickie Bell visited Augusta County schools today to see what local schools are doing to protect their students.

They talked mostly about school safety and gun violence.

Delegate Landes says he believes Augusta and Rockingham counties are further ahead safety-wise than other parts of the state.

"I actually think we're further ahead in Augusta and Rockingham counties than probably other parts of the state, and that's good," Landes said. "We're actually farther ahead I think in Virginia than they are probably in Florida which is, again, good," but he is still looking for ways to increase safety."

Delegates Landes and Bell were both at Wilson Middle School today and were impressed with the school's security camera systems and partnership with local law enforcement. Bell says these schools are safer than you might realize.

"They've done a lot of work already that most people aren't aware of but it's beneath the surface," Bell said. "And the average citizen doesn't realize that, but what we saw today was clearly that they are taking extra steps, they're going the extra mile."

He added that school resource officers are also very effective in improving safety, and he hopes a budget will be passed very soon that will allow extra money for additional resource officers.