WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Paulette Johnson sat outside Whittier Elementary School, waiting to pick up her granddaughter on Monday. She said that she does this every day. She worries about both her granddaughter’s safety and her own.

“I don’t want anybody shooting me while they’re shooting somebody else,” Johnson said.

Whittier Elementary is one of three campuses within a block of each other, including Coolidge High, where someone robbed a student outside of the school’s entrance earlier this month. DC Police said that one of the suspects accidentally fired his gun during the crime.

“We need somebody in the buildings full-time dedicated to school safety,” said D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker.

Parker proposed the School Safety Enhancement Amendment Act, which would create safety directors for every school in the District. High schools would also have an assistant safety director. Those people would work as liaisons between D.C. Police and other government agencies.

“Teachers are stretched thin, school leaders are stretched thin. It makes it hard to keep school buildings safe,” Parker said as the main reason why he came up with the bill.

The district currently has SROs, yet those resources are also stretched thin.

“SROs are not in each school all day. We have SROs that are split between schools,” said Parker.

There currently are 60 school resource officers patrolling district schools. That number will drop next year.

“Next year, there’ll be funding for about 40 SROs,” said Parker due to reduced funding from the city.

Five of Parker’s fellow council members signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. They’re not the only ones who support it

“We have to keep the kids safe, do everything you can to put in place to make so it happens,” Johnson said.

Parker said his staff is working out the cost for the new positions.