“I want to assure you that safety of our students is our top priority and that our schools have a comprehensive crisis plan in place to help avoid tragedies such as this. The plan is reviewed and updated annually. We ask you to please help by being our eyes and ears and assist us in any way you can to improve safety in our schools and our community.” - Jeff McDaniel, superintendent of Floyd County Schools to local parents
Shortly after news broke of the school shootings Friday in Connecticut, the phone rang in the office of Sloan Roach, spokesman for Gwinnett County Public Schools, Georgia’s largest school district.
Would students be rattled, the caller asked, by what happened 950 miles away? Should counselors be ready to console upset students?
School officials across metro Atlanta faced those kind of questions Friday, as well as this key one: Is it possible to spend enough or do enough to guarantee the children’s safety?
School districts have spent millions of dollars on security plans and devices, trying to avoid another Columbine-style massacre. On Friday, parents flooded their offices with phone calls, emails and texts, asking what security they’ve got and wondering whether it is enough.
“Today’s incident in Connecticut touches us all,” said J. Alvin Wilbanks, chief executive officer and superintendent of Gwinnett County Public Schools. “Tragic events in other communities place the public spotlight on school safety, here and around the country. “The fear among parents was palpable.”
Said Shane Bartlett, an Atlanta attorney, “As soon as I heard, I wanted to pick my daughter up from school and keep her with me for the rest of the day if not forever.”
Some school administrators responded with somber emails, voice messages and letters to parents and school employees. Fulton County School Superintendent Robert Avossa sent a recorded message to 100,000 parents Friday afternoon about the day’s events and the need to stay vigilant.
“Our schools, our malls and our places of worship aren’t the sanctuaries that they may have been in the past,” Avossa said in a phone interview.
Flags at Atlanta City Hall and all city facilities were ordered flown at half-staff by Mayor Kasim Reed.
Officials in the Clayton County school system stepped up security for Friday night’s school basketball games and wrestling matches, said spokesman David Waller. Although there was some concern about the potential for a copycat, the main objective was to put participants at ease about security, given the day’s events in Connecticut, he said.
The Gwinnett Police Department announced plans to increase police patrols in and around local schools, citing concerns about a potential copycat. Stepped up police patrols also were planned in Cobb County schools.
Gwinnett and the other metro districts have a myriad of security measures already in place.
For instance, Gwinnett has a mandatory visitor sign-in at the school office, call-back buttons in classrooms and trailers, police officers, security cameras in most schools and hand-held metal detectors in some schools.
Fulton and DeKalb County schools have armed police officers in every high school and middle school. Fulton also has police officer within two to three miles of each elementary school, Avossa said.
Besides 49 school resource officers, DeKalb employs safety technology: Security cameras, as well as doors that can only be unlocked from inside or with key cards. “All exterior doors are locked at all times, so we’re taking the necessary precautions in that way to make sure our schools are safe,” said Lillian Govus, school system spokeswoman.
Since the Columbine tragedy in which 12 students and one teacher were killed in 1999, Cobb County Schools has placed police officers at all of its high schools and middle schools. Each of their school buildings are equipped with security cameras, and visitors to their elementary schools must be buzzed in by a school personnel. Staff members can only enter with a security badge, said school system spokesman Jay Dillon.
Garry McGiboney, assistant superintendent for policy at the Georgia Department of Education, said the whole concept of school security changed after the Columbine shooting and again after the 911 terrorist attacks.
The state now has crisis planning guidelines and a website that helps school districts develop individualized security plans, which have to be approved by the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, he said.
“They (districts) do take it more seriously now than ever before,” McGiboney said.
Paul Timm, a school security consultant with Reta Security in Chicago, agreed. But he said Friday’s tragedy also shines the light on the need for greater security when it comes to access to schools. He believes the tragedy will prompt the state and federal governments to fund more school security grants.
“There will be changes as a result of this because, collectively, America’s heart is broken,” Timm said.
Dayton Hibbs, an associate superintendent of Marietta City Schools, said that, while the shooting is an anomaly due to its horrific magnitude, it’s an opportunity for schools to review their safety procedures. His school district recently upgraded its security systems to include cameras and a key-less entry system in the elementary school, Sixth Grade Academy and middle schools, he said.
The key-less entry system allows the schools to lock down the majority of doors with only staff accessing the doors with their employee identification, he said.
“I believe we are taking just about every reasonable step that can be taken,” Hibbs said.
It’s harder, he noted, to prepare for such horrendous acts as the one committed in Connecticut.
“It becomes very difficult to be able to deal with individuals who obviously have extreme intentions,” Hibbs said. “We will see if anything can be learned from this incident, but, of course, we strongly wish the incident never occurred in the first place.”
Parent Natalie Wakeley, a resident of Woodstock, said the massacre “only highlights what we, unfortunately, already know to be true: The world is a dangerous place and we can’t always protect our children.”
Staff writers Daarel Burnette II, Ty Tagami, Katie Leslie and Wayne Washington contributed to this report.
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