Danville gives warm welcome to students on first day of school

DANVILLE, Va. (WDBJ) - Monday marked the first day of school for Danville students.

They were welcomed with open arms by teachers and staff, who were just as excited as the students.

“If little sleep last night and still waking up early represents how excited and anxious I am to get started, that’s kind of where I am,” said Kelsie Hubbard, Schoolfield Elementary School Principal. “This is my first year as principal here. So, I’m very excited to continue to serve the parents, the students and the teachers.”

Members of the Danville Police Department were at every public and private school to hand out stickers and high fives.

“The Danville Police Department for the last several years has gone out to all of the schools to greet the students, make them feel welcome, and humanize the police a little bit to show them that we’re here to support them,” said Matt Bell, Danville Police Department Public Relations Specialist. “We want to help them when they need help.”

“It raises positivity with our police force. It’s very important that they see smiling faces and see the positivity and the ability that police officers have to help our students and our community. So, it’s great that they’re here interacting with each and every student this morning,” added Hubbard.

Schoolfield Elementary School revealed its new red, white, and blue USA theme by asking teachers and students to show up wearing the new school colors. USA stands for Upstanding Students All-around.

All the staff has also taken part in active shooter training.

“100% of my priority is making sure that everyone’s safe here on the Schoolfield campus. So, we are very prepared in the event that something were to happen. Of course, we hope that it does not, but we are 100% trained and ready to go to make sure everyone is safe,” said Hubbard.

Five School Resource Officers will rotate between all Danville Public Schools throughout the entire school year.

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