As they were rolling out a new website dedicated to safety issues, officials—as well as officers— from Cobb schools tried to reassure parents at an East Cobb town hall meeting Thursday that they were being proactive in dealing with a variety of threats to students, teachers and staff alike.
The new site, called Cobb Shield, includes much of the material presented to the audience of around 50 parents at the Lassiter Concert Hall.
Some of them had specific questions about threats of violence, accidents, assaults and bullying, but school officials said they couldn’t answer some of those questions in public.
One came from a Lassiter mother, who wanted more information about a report of bullet casings that were found in a classroom during the current school year.
John Adams, the Cobb schools deputy superintendent for human resources and operations, told her that a communication was sent to parents from the Lassiter administration. When she said she hadn’t received it, Adams said that he “couldn’t comment on an ongoing investigation.”
Adams said the matter “illustrates how . .. students have to be our eyes and ears” in reporting such incidents.
Being watchful was the watchword at the town hall, which featured leaders of the Cobb County School District Police force, which has 65 uniformed officers.
Many of them have years of previous law enforcement service, including Cobb Police. Capt. Wayne Pickett, a former Precinct 4 commander in East Cobb, is one of them, and he’s second-in-command to Chief Ron Storey, also a Cobb Police retiree.
The department average is 26 years of experience, according to Adams, and 12 officers have SWAT training. “We want mature officers who have some experience,” Storey said.
Pickett detailed how ongoing “Code Red” drills are working, especially at the high school level, which are supposed to have one each semester.
He said the unannounced drills are designed to train staff, teachers and students to be better prepared for suspicious persons activity. During the drills, a plain-clothes officer comes to the school and tries to go as far as possible before being noticed.
“The administration has no idea we’re coming,” Pickett said. They’re told “We’re in a Code Red right now. What are you going to do?”
More than anything, he added, school police want to gauge how prepared each school is, with a checklist of around 25 items to keep in mind.
“There’s no way to pre-plan such a stressful activity,” Pickett said. “It’s snapshot of what they do. Do they know the policies for Code Red?”
After a drill, school police meet with administrators to identify successes and improvements. If there are enough problems at a school, another drill may be ordered.
A report is sent up the administrative line at the district, all the way to the superintendent.
Pickett said “we haven’t had too many that are bad. Most are exceptionally good.”
When a parent asked about inspecting Code Red drill reports, Adams said that’s also something that’s not available to the public, for security reasons.
Officer Phil Bradford, another Cobb Police veteran, heads up a newly created position with the school police as emergency management specialist. He updated the Lassiter audience about the AlertPoint emergency communications system that’s gradually being rolled out at every school in the district.
It’s a $5 million system that was begun in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., school shootings, and features a device issued to teachers and staff. The card-type device allows them to trigger an alert to designated first responders in case of any kind of emergency, from a suspicious person to a health issue.
“The badge identifies who you are and where you are,” Bradford said. “Most important, it leads to instant action.”
Flashing lights and beeper alarms are activated in the case of a Code Red alert and the entire school is notified of a lockdown.
High school classrooms are being issued AlertPoints now, to be followed by those at the middle school and then elementary school level.
An active-shooter training video has been shown to staff for more than a year. Bradford said a safety video has just been completed for elementary students, and another for high school students should be done soon.
Those videos, and other safety-related measures, will gradually be added to the Cobb Shield webpage, said Adams, a former Cobb Police officer. That page also will include a tip line, which is expected to be fully functional by the spring semester.
He encouraged parents to contact him with suggestions at: john.adams@cobbk12.org.
“This is the most important thing we do,” Adams said.
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