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Lt. Matt Wurtz helps Deputy Victoria Hopper through the emergency window of a school bus while Lt. Travis Jarrell assists with the training exercise in January. SROs and other educators will undergo more safety training in June. FILE
Everyone involved with school leadership across the nation cringes every time there is a shooting incident somewhere, and they know that something like that can happen anywhere in today’s climate.
Habersham County Schools Safety Director Murray Kogod has supervised all kinds of training to prevent such incidents, but not just for officers.
“Law enforcement has to be on its game at all times, but we also work with teachers, administrators, bus drivers … everyone who has a stake in these kids’ safety,” Kogod said. “We train them to take proactive measures in schools to address these problems early on before something happens. Any event like this is concerning no matter where you are, and we try to show them observation and prevention techniques to try and identify someone who may be in crisis.”
The latest deadly school incident occurred in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, killing six people including three young children. On the same day, a prank phone call made a false threat against Tallulah Falls School, springing school and law enforcement leaders into action, taking any threat seriously.
Tallulah Falls Police Chief Tonya Elrod said a call came into city hall from an unidentified male with a strong foreign accent. The clerk called Habersham Dispatch to inform them of the call.
“The man then called the non-emergency number to dispatch and advised them there was a shooter with casualties at the high school, 12th grade, but he couldn’t identify a building of where it was taking place,” Elrod said. “The dispatcher contacted me and advised me of the call. I had just previously gotten off the phone with the head of security so I immediately got back in touch with him and advised him of the call.
When Elrod arrived at TFS, the school was locked down and all buildings for the school and grounds were cleared and officers found no such threat.
“I spoke with Homeland Security about the incident due to previous threats and hoax calls that other schools were receiving and passed all information off to them,” Elrod said. “We are still looking into everything and always going over securities at the school to ensure the safety of the children and staff. Also I did advise Habersham County Sheriff’s Office, which assisted in the search of the grounds.”
Kogod and Sheriff Joey Terrell established a training conference for Georgia School Resource Officers and Educators (GASROE) that will take place for the fourth year in a row in June. The goal is to take in all stakeholders in student safety and equip them to be as vigilant as possible against potential threats.
“We are going into their house, so learning how to work with educators of all kinds to provide a safe school environment is what this is about,” Kogod said. “We learn the best practices that they can take back to their individual districts and apply there.”
Kogod praised the Habersham County Board of Education and leadership for stressing school safety.
“We have safe schools here, but you can never be too safe,” Kogod said.