(SRN NEWS/AP/97.5 GLORY FM) – A number of people directly affected by the mass shooting at a Barrow County high school last year that left two students and two teacher dead were on hand Monday when Gov. Kemp signed a new school safety law.
Richard Aspinwall, the father of the Ricky Aspinwall (pictured), one of the teachers who was killed, called Monday “a great day for advancing safety.”
“I don’t want anyone else to have to go through this,” Aspinwall told reporters. You see it happening all over the country. It’s got to stop. Some way or another, it’s got to stop.”
But like with most new laws, putting the words into practice will be key.
“Everybody’s got to work together,” Rep. Holt Persinger, the Barrow County Republican who represents Apalachee High School and sponsored the bill, said after the signing ceremony. He said that included not only schools and local law enforcement agencies, but Georgia’s child welfare, mental health and emergency management agencies.
House Bill 268 was driven in part by the belief among many that the Barrow County school system didn’t have a full picture of the warning signs displayed by the 14-year-old accused in the fatal shootings. School officials never became aware that a sheriff’s deputy in Jackson County had interviewed Colt Gray in May 2023 after the FBI passed along a tip that Gray might have posted a shooting threat online.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith called the measure a “good start line,” but agreed cooperation would be key moving forward.
“You’re not always going to get the job done unless you communicate,” Smith said. “And you’ve got to understand what lanes they’re in. Law enforcement has a lane, education has a lane, and then you have the taxpayers who have a lane.”
Getting the law passed was emotional for many, including Persinger, who cried on the day it got final approval, and for the Aspinwall family
“It is part of the healing, but you never really heal,” Aspinwall said. “You always have your memories. It always hurts.”
His son was the husband of Shayna Aspinwall, a science and special ed teacher at Flowery Branch High. The other teacher who was slain also had Hall County connections. Christina Irimie once taught in the Gainesville City School System.
Click here for more details on what the bill requires: Kemp signs school safety law