COBB COUNTY, Ga. — There is an effort in Smyrna to prevent school shootings, and not by taking away guns or active shooter training.
Instead, the effort focuses on stopping violence by teaching parents warning signs.
It’s every parent, every teacher, every student and every police officer’s worst nightmare: a school shooting like what we saw at Apalachee High School, that left two students and two teachers dead.
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It’s that fear which led to a Protecting Our Children training Tuesday night.
“Of course the idea is that you don’t want it to get to violence that’s really what we want to avoid,” Smyrna Deputy Police Chief Mark Binicewicz told Channel 2′s Candace McCowan.
Smyrna police and licensed social workers are working to reach parents and caretakers of students by hosting Protecting Our Children training sessions.
They want parents to know before violence, there is one key warning sign.
“Social isolation is a very big one. When kids begin to withdraw or perceive that they don’t have social support ‚” Dr Bianca Channer of Innerwork Counseling said. “If they, themselves don’t feel connected to other people or supported by other people, that’s a warning sign.”
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That is when they want parents to intervene.
“I would tell you to have a conversation with them and to explicitly state what you’ve identified: ‘Hey I’m noticing these things.’ Be very, very specific and state those things,” Channer said.
The training also addressed when to escalate to finding professional help or if there are imminent warning signs, when to call in law enforcement.
The goal is to reach troubled students before it’s too late.
“Ultimately the police department isn’t what you want. You want your kid to go and get help dealing with whatever it is they’re dealing with,” Binicewicz said.
There are two more Protecting Our Children training sessions: December 10 at 6:30 p.m. and December 14 at 10 a.m. at the Smyrna Community Center, 1250 Powder Springs St., Smyrna, Ga. 30080 in the Magnolia Room.
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