Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas discusses SROs in DPS schools after recent shootings: "I don't think that SROs are the end all be all to safety"

It's been almost a week since a student shot two administrators at East High School and on Tuesday another community meeting was held to discuss the ongoing youth violence.

Dozens of parents, community leaders and officials showed up at Hope Baptist Church Family Life Center for the discussion.

"I think all the students are scared," said Teri Viswanath, whose son is a freshman at EHS. "They are seeing footage of their deans being brought away in stretchers... they don't have information, and it's hard."

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and several other officials, including Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas, addressed concerned parents.

"I think everybody understands that this needs to be a much broader conversation and I'm glad we're having it right now, where we talk about everything that is needed in order to support students in schools and create lasting safety," Thomas said.

Thomas told CBS News Colorado that by Monday, the department will provide at least 13 officers to patrol DPS high schools, including two at East. But only about half of those officers were previous SROs with the specific training, meaning they don't have SRO certification.

"They are a certified officer and they have the ability to engage with youth already," Thomas said. "There is no law prohibiting an officer from being in a school and acting in a safety role."

Thomas added the department will worry about training those uncertified officers at a later date. He says DPS usually takes care of cost to train and pay SROs. Thomas expresses the department will work on training more officers moving forward, but added that SROs shouldn't be the only focus.  

"I want to be clear that I don't think that SROs are the end all be all to safety," Thomas said.

While SROs coming back to DPS schools is a solution in the short term, Thomas and community leaders like John Bailey, the director of the Colorado Black Round Table, said it's way more comprehensive than just having a police presence at schools.

"I think that the most important thing is that we need to push public policy," said Bailey. "We need to focus on dealing with red flags, dealing with what age you can be to buy a gun, dealing with mental health issues, so there's a lot of work to be done."