BARROW COUNTY, Ga. — Wednesday will mark three months since the September shooting at Apalachee High School that cost four people their lives.
Channel 2′s Michael Doudna was there when the Barrow County Board of Education met Tuesday as some parents pushed for the board to implement more safety procedures.
“It’s been 12 weeks. I feel like there is a lack of urgency from the board of education,” Layla Contreras, an Apalachee alum, said. Contreras’ sister attends the school and her mom is a substitute teacher as well.
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The school board recently released a survey to get the public’s opinions about potential school safety changes, including the implementation of a clear backpack policy and weapon detection systems. The board plans to take the results and discuss potential policies in late January.
“To see some progress is nice, but it’s nowhere near what we expected at this point,” parent Sean Shultz said.
Shultz supports both a clear bag and weapons detection system. He thinks the policies would increase school safety in the area.
“None of it is going to be a solve-all. It’s going to be a multifaceted system,” Shultz said.
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A spokesperson for Barrow County said that the school district does not want to make a knee-jerk decision. They say implementing a new bag policy or weapons detection systems would require additional training for some school personnel.
“It’s unfortunate that we’ve seen other counties take action over the tragedy that’s happened here,” Contreras said.
Since the shooting, school districts like Gwinnett County have rolled out a pilot program for clear backpacks. However, a survey found that a clear backpack policy was not popular with a majority of students.
The Barrow County School Board has made some changes. They hired additional SROs and put a phone in every classroom. The board also brought in mobile classrooms and is using a satellite campus near the high school for class space so they could close the wing where the shooting occurred.
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