ORANGE PARK, Fla. -- Parents who walk their children home from Grove Park Elementary School every day say even one year after her death Somer Thompson still has an impact on them.
"It affected out family and inspired our family because we never let my daughter walk alone; we always walk with her, if not me she has uncles," said parent Paris Waring.
As she walks her first-grader along the same route where police said Somer Thompson was abducted and killed on Gano Avenue Waring said she has seen changes.
Jarred Harrell has been charged with premeditated murder in the death of 7-year-old Somer, who attended Grove Park. She was last seen on her walk home from school in October 2009. Her body was found a few days later in a Georgia landfill. Today is the one-year anniversary of her disappearance.
"If kids are walking alone you have adults who are helping watch them on their way to school and making sure they get where they're going," said Waring.
The school has implemented new safety procedures and now stresses stranger-danger education, said parents.
"It's made the children more aware so they know where they can go and can't go, and they have more understanding of who not to go with," said parent Amy Mooney.
And there is more community involvement throughout the neighborhood, including a new neighborhood watch organization which has signed up 500 homes in the last year.
MORE: FULL COVERAGE OF THE SOMER THOMPSON CASE
MORE: Somer Thompson childhood gallery
First Coast News