East Cobb school lockdowns

Top East Cobb stories for 2019: Lockdowns at high schools

by

East Cobb school lockdowns

During the first weeks of the 2019-20 Cobb County School District academic year, two East Cobb high schools went on lockdown, and a student at another school was arrested after threatening violence and attacking a teacher.

Those incidents raised concerns by school safety advocates about the district’s measures to handle such incidents.

Read the stories

A trespasser was quickly apprehended after walking onto the Sprayberry campus with a gun and a Wheeler student was arrested after other students alerted teachers and staff that he had carried a gun on a school bus.

At Walton High School, a student was arrested for making terroristic threats, saying he would shoot up the school when he was taken from a class for having alcohol in a water bottle. He also was charged with battery for kicking a teacher.

An East Cobb parent who helped form a Cobb schools safety group last year acknowledged that the district is taking more concerted steps to ensure safety and communicate better, but still thinks its approach is largely reactive.

She’d like to see the district invest more in mental health counseling and a “social emotional learning” program other school systems have begun.

The Walton incident wasn’t made public for a week, and then only because of news reports, while the Sprayberry and Wheeler cases were made public the day they occurred.

The district has continued to stress its safety resource effort called Cobb Shield, which contains information about its police force, emergency management procedures and code red drills, which are required each semester at all 16 high schools.

District spokesman John Floresta said Cobb schools was “batting 100 percent in the way each incident [at the East Cobb schools] was handled,” from quick actions by school officials to apprehend those posing a threat, to relaying information to the school community.

“We’re being as proactive as any school district I know,” he said.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

East Cobb bank robbery prompts lockdown of Wheeler High, East Cobb Middle School

by
Fifth Third Bank Kroger Roswell Road, East Cobb bank robbery
Surveillance photos provided by Cobb Police Department.

An East Cobb bank robbery Thursday morning resulted in the short lockdown of two nearby schools as police pursued a suspect.

According to the Cobb County School District, the exterior doors to Wheeler High School and East Cobb Middle School were locked for about 15 minutes after Cobb Police began investigating the robbery at the Fifth Third Bank location inside a Kroger supermarket at 2100 Roswell Road.

The schools are located across the street from one another on Holt Road and 1.3 miles from the Kroger at the Pavilions at East Lake Shopping Center at Roswell and Robinson roads.

Police said the robbery took place shortly after 10 a.m., when a man walked into the bank and demanded money from a teller.

According to police, the suspect never showed a weapon and left the bank with cash on foot, through the shopping center parking lot, and possibly in the direction of Wheeler.

The suspect remained at large late Thursday afternoon. According to a CCSD statement, the lockdown was “done out of an abundance of caution” at the request of Cobb Police.

“There was never any threat at either school and both schools continued with instruction as normal,” the CCSD statement continued. “Student and staff movement within the building was never restricted.”

Cobb Police described the suspect as an Asian male, around six feet tall, with a husky build. He’s believed to be between 30-40 years old, and was last seen wearing a black hoodie, a black Washington Nationals baseball cap and jeans.

Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call Cobb Police at 770-499-3945.