A member of the Cobb County Board of Education is moderating a town hall meeting about school safety in Powder Springs on Thursday.
The meeting comes a week after two people were shot in the McEachern High School parking lot. The school was locked down for about two hours as students sheltered in place, and parents flocked to the school to check on their children. The victims, who suffered non-life-threatening injuries, were not McEachern students, but had been in a fight with a Cobb student, police said.
In the days since, two students have been arrested in relation to the shooting, Cobb police announced. The first suspect, 17-year-old Scott Anthony Foor Jr., is accused of firing a handgun several times, shooting one victim in the leg and the other in the arm, his arrest warrant states. The second suspect was arrested Tuesday, and allegedly engaged “in gunfire without causing further injuries,” police said. Police did not release the suspect’s name because of their age.
The community meeting will be moderated by board member Leroy “Tre’” Hutchins, who represents the Powder Springs area. Students are welcomed at the meeting, which will be a space for “open dialogue and collective action,” according to the advertisement.
Cobb County reported eight instances of students possessing handguns, 178 instances of students possessing knives and 1,634 instances of fighting districtwide in the previous school year, according to state data. Cobb is the state’s second-largest school system.
School safety has been top of mind for Georgia schools and lawmakers in recent years. Gov. Brian Kemp announced in December his intent to give every public school in Georgia $45,000 to spend on security infrastructure and staffing. Cobb County was an early adopter of crisis alert badges, which allow school staff to quickly notify administrators or trigger lockdowns in an emergency. Other metro Atlanta school districts have begun implementing weapons detection systems in schools.
School safety town hall
When: 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday
Where: Patricia C. Vaughn Cultural Arts Center, 4181 Atlanta St., Powder Springs (City Council Chambers behind the Powder Springs Library)
Moderator: School board member Leroy “Tre’” Hutchins
Confirmed guests: Cobb County Commissioner Monique Sheffield, state Rep. David Wilkerson, D-Powder Springs.
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