Amid possible protests on Friday in response to a school shooting in Barrow County, the Cobb County School District said that students who disrupt the school day “will, at a minimum, be suspended.”
A message that went out after school was dismissed on Thursday said that “students’ ability to express themselves is important to us, without disrupting school.”
Walkouts have been called around the country following the fatal shooting of two students and two teachers earlier this month at Apalachee High School.
The district said in response to further information from East Cobb News that “through national and local social media campaigns, we are aware some students could be planning to participate in a protest on Friday, September 20th, 2024.”
The response wasn’t more specific except to say that “as a reminder to families, we shared information about the District policy related to school attendance and behavior that causes a disruption to the school day.”
Published reports said some students were planning a protest at the Georgia Capitol Thursday to demand gun safety measures in schools, as legislators were meeting to discuss the subject.
The Cobb school district message to parents said that “as we continue to reflect and process the tragedy in Barrow,” students and staff are “actively invited to participate in school-sponsored memorials and the condolences” for the victims.
But “participating in disruptions to school could impact a student’s ability to participate in sports and other extracurriculars.”
One school that has organized a remembrance is Wheeler High School in East Cobb.
Principal Paul Gillihan said in a message to the school community that the homeroom period on Friday will provide an opportunity to “allow students a chance to have their voices heard and not miss any academic class time.”
He said that “this will also allow them to have a designated place (the football stadium) as a safe place to walk out to. The students who participate in this organized and safe event will not receive consequences as this has been cleared by the administration and will not disrupt any instructional time.”
Gillihan’s message said discussions to coordinate such an event began with student council members last week.
Tensions have been heightened in school districts following the Apalachee shooting, in which a 14-year-old student and his father have been charged.
Cobb school district officials said more than 60 reports of “threats” have been investigated since then, but none of them have been deemed a threat to a school campus.
They include Dickerson Middle School and Walton High School, which was subject to a brief lockdown on Tuesday after a bomb threat was reported.
The Cobb school district said that after multiple law enforcement agencies investigated, it was considered “not an actual threat.”
At a Cobb Board of Education work session Thursday afternoon, some critics urged the district to discuss school safety plans and in particular, a request by school board member Tre’ Hutchins to increase use of technology to detect weapons.
But his concerns have not made it to the school board agenda.
“Apalachee High School has the same systems in place that we have,” said East Cobb resident Heather Tolley-Bauer of Watching the Funds-Cobb, a watchdog group. “And yet, here we are, another tragedy, all because a gun was brought into a school by a student.
“We are not asking you to share everything, we are asking you to consider everything. It is not a lot to ask. Will you be able to say you did enough? Because right now the answer is no.”
In 2018, following a mass school shooting in Florida, students at several high schools in Cobb, including Walton, Wheeler, Lassiter and Pope, took part in a walkout.
Some campuses locked their front gates, and at Walton school officials led an observance before classes began.
The district handed out in-school suspensions then, but in its message Thursday wasn’t more specific than the threats of class and activity suspensions.
It encouraged parents to visit the district’s website for its code of conduct policies.
Related:
- Cobb schools remove six more books from libraries
- Cobb schools: Walton HS bomb report ‘not an active threat’
- Cobb school board chairman responds to safety concerns
- Dickerson MS student facing criminal charges for threats
- Walton, Wheeler students headline initial 2025 National Merit semifinalists
- Tritt ES staff member hospitalized after HVAC fire
- Cobb teachers train on virtual STEM prisms tool
- Here’s what you didn’t hear about Cobb school book removals
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