DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Some DeKalb County parents are raising safety concerns after police arrested two students for having a gun at school.
The students took the gun to Clarkston High School on Friday, causing a lockdown.
Channel 2’s Tyisha Fernandes asked school officials about safety protocols and spoke to parents about what had them worried.
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“I found that there are no barricades in the classrooms here and there has never been a plan for them,” Tracey Harris, a parent of a Clarkston High student said.
She told Fernandes that she was furious that school district officials don’t have a plan to add an extra layer of protection for everyone here.
Right now, the only thing protecting students and staff from a school shooter is a locked door.
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“I got the alert on my phone from WSB, right? And my heart absolutely 100% dropped,” Harris told Channel 2 Action News.
She said she gets nervous any time her daughter’s school is on lockdown.
On Friday when she got the alert that Clarkston High School was on a lockdown, her daughter told her a gunman was in the school and she didn’t feel safe.
“She said the door was only locked, so my question to DeKalb County is ‘I thought the door was supposed to be more than locked, with so many school shootings happening in America, I thought some sort of barricade should’ve been put together to keep people out,” Harris said.
Harris said it was especially concerning after the shooting at Apalachee High School in September, when several parents raised concerns about school safety.
A spokesperson for DeKalb County Public Schools told Fernandes that “there is no plan to, nor has there been a plan for, barricades on classroom doors at Clarkston High School.”
When Fernandes told Harris, she said she was shocked and couldn’t believe that district officials think a locked door is enough protection fro ma school shooter.
She said Friday was a trial run for what could happen at the school, and she hopes the district will reconsider.
“I do want us to have stronger rules if that’s what we need to have and if that includes barricading some doors, then that’s what we need to do,” Harris said. “I want my daughter safe, I want my daughter and her friends and everybody that’s connected to us safe.”
Harris said she’s always been supportive of the school and the district and she’ll continue doing that by making sure school board members are aware of what happened here and the fact that parents want more protection.
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