School officials in Barrow County hosted another meeting Tuesday night to review with parents new safety procedures already in place, including weapons detection systems, and to preview new initiatives now underway.
Included are mental health services for students, a state requirement that police be notified whenever a student threatens harm at school and mandates the creation of an anonymous reporting system across the state. Barrow County, meanwhile, is upgrading its own tipline which is monitored 24 hours a day to ensure threats can be acted on immediately.
All of this comes as the first anniversary of last year’s shooting at Apalachee High that left two students and two teachers dead.
The bottom line, according to Matt Thompson, Barrow County Deputy School Superintendent: “We hope this significantly reduces, if not eliminates, the chance of an event happening like that again,”