The Gwinnett County school board voted Thursday evening in favor of putting unarmed security at each of its elementary schools, which officials said is a temporary measure until they’re able to add more school resources officers on those campuses.
The decision received applause from some audience members at the meeting, but others said it doesn’t go far enough.
It comes a week after authorities say a student fired a gun inside a Meadowcreek Elementary School bathroom. No one was injured in the incident, but it has unnerved several parents and students who voiced their demands Thursday for a weapons detection system at all elementary schools.
Gwinnett, the state’s largest school district, recently approved plans to put weapons detection systems in all of its middle and high schools, but not its elementary schools.
Jackson Cavallaro, a second-grader at Ivy Creek Elementary School in Buford, noted the difference in his remarks to the board.
“If you guys get weapons detectors, we will be safe from guns so guns won’t get in the schools. None of us will be hurt,” said Jackson, who turned 7 on Thursday.
Jackson’s father, Jeramie, also pleaded to the board to install weapons detection systems, citing the incident at Meadowcreek.
“That boy in Meadowcreek could have killed somebody last week,” he said. “Or maybe even killed himself.”
Tony Lockard, the school district’s chief of safety and security, said the school safety officers are a “gap-filling measure until we’re able to onboard more school resource officers at those elementary schools.” School resource officers are permitted to carry firearms. In Gwinnett, they have at least five years of law enforcement experience, according to the district’s website.
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