RICHMOND, Va. -- An interview with Richmond Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras was initially left out of the third-party investigation findings into the deadly June 2023 Graduation Day shooting in Richmond, CBS 6 has learned.
A judge ordered that the report, and all accompanying evidence, be released to the public on January 17 after the Richmond School Board initially rejected CBS 6's Freedom of Information Act request and argued to keep it private.
Sands Anderson, the law firm hired to do the investigation, said the omission of Kamras' interview was "inadvertent," an oversight, according to sources.
A spokesperson for Richmond Public Schools said the district was not involved in the preparation of the documents and referred all questions to Sands Anderson.
The interview with Kamras was quickly added to the rest of the report available online on January 23 after CBS 6 asked where it was.
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Sands Anderson conducted its interview with Kamras on November 3, just days before the final report was presented to the Richmond School Board.
In his interview with the law firm, Kamras said he was not familiar with the school system's homebound learning manual until after the June shooting that killed Huguenot High School graduate Shawn Jackson and Jackson's stepfather.
"To be honest, the first time I really got a close look at that was after this incident," Kamras said in his interview when asked about the homebound manual.
He also could not definitively answer whether the manual served as a policy or an administrative procedure.
The handbook states homebound students are not allowed in school buildings or at school-sponsored events unless otherwise permitted by a principal or desginee.
Jackson was assigned to homebound learning partly due to threats against his life. His mother previously told Jackson's counselor and principal about the threats— including that other students "shot up" their home and "literally tried to kill him."
But how Jackson came to be at the graduation ceremony at the Altria Theater, when he was not permitted on school grounds or at school events, was a focal point for investigators.
The law firm found a counselor decided to "squeeze him in" the day of the ceremony, after acknowledging his participation at a graduation rehearsal just a week prior could be "dangerous."
Investigators determined numerous staff with knowledge of security issues surrounding Jackson failed to complete required threat assessments, failed to escalate safety concerns to the proper security personnel, and did not follow the required graduation authorizations.
Kamras admitted to investigators that not all school personnel got training on mandated threat assessments and that there was not a "standard set of trainings" specific to threat assessments.
"Certain people need to go through the threat assessment training— principals and I think a few others, but I don't think it's— I'm pretty sure we don't have it as part of like, every employee in RPS has to go through this set of training," Kamras said in the interview.
He acknowledged the crucial information on why Jackson was homebound was stuck in silos, meaning not all personnel in contact with Jackson knew his situation and it was not passed up the chain of command.
The superintendent also addressed one email communication in which Jackson's mother alerted Kamras that Huguenot students "shot up" their home.
Kamras said he referred the email communication to another administration official to provide support to the student. However, he could not recall whether there was any further action that stemmed from that email.
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The investigator told Kamras that the issues exposed through the investigation within Richmond Public Schools appeared to be happening on the "on the ground." The law firm said there were "not a whole lot of systemic big picture issues" that Kamras needed to address.
The investigator also commended Kamras for being "forthcoming, open, and transparent" throughout the process.
"I just want to make sure that we do our very best to improve and respond to whatever is found," Kamras told the investigator.
He asked whether the final report would make it clear what improvements will need to be made.
"It might be a good idea to look at the report and say maybe we can tighten up here, we can fix this or we can do that, or we could train better on this," the investigator responded.
At the end of the interview, Sands Anderson said it had doubled the estimated 50 hours it would take to complete the investigation and offered to walk Kamras throught the "implications" of documents being released through the Freedom of Information Act.
CBS 6 investigative reporter Tyler Layne, who filed the Freedom of Information Act request on behalf of CBS 6 and testified before the judge who ordered the report to go public, has asked Kamras for a sit-down interview to discuss the report.
Kamras has yet to accept.
