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With the recent school shooting at Apalachee High School near Winder, Georgia hitting close to home, many parents are understandably concerned for the safety of their children.

School Superintendent Rachel Hazel mentioned the tragic incident during the town hall meeting at Hogansville Elementary on Thursday, reminding parents that safety is still a top concern.

“Our thoughts and our prayers have all been with Appalachia school and the tragedy that happened yesterday. I want to assure you, we have been meeting all day, including with law enforcement agencies to review our safety plans. We have very solid safety plans in place at each of our schools, but we have been meeting additionally to ensure number one, all of our classroom doors are locked all the time. That’s a practice that was already in place, but we’re going to be doing even more safety checks to make sure that that’s happening,” Hazel said,

While security has long been a priority for the Troup County School System, the district began stepping up security measures in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting in 2022. Since then TCSS has implemented countless measures to help protect the students and staff at local schools to protect them from similar events.

Since then, TCSS has added a school resource officer (SRO) to nearly every school with the eventual goal of having one in every school. Weapons detection systems are being utilized at all high schools and middle schools, along with Callaway Stadium for school events. Active shooter drills have been added to the tornado and fire drills we grew up with.

In addition to SROs, the school system has hired security officers to operate the weapons detection systems at entrance points to schools.

A big part of the strategy is making sure everyone comes into the schools through access control points, said TCSS Security Director Andrew Calhoun. Everyone, especially visitors, should enter the schools through designated entry points. 

The schools are always on a form of soft lockdown, Calhoun said, meaning only the doors at the front entrance lobby should ever be unlocked. That’s where people can be checked for weapons and there are staff to ensure people don’t just walk in. In most schools, even the front door is locked and visitors need to be allowed in.

“Basically, parents would have to be buzzed in from outside the school. We are working diligently to get that installed in all the schools that don’t have them,” Calhoun said.

Another security measure that TCSS has implemented is the emergency alert badges worn by staff. All staff wear ID badges from Centegix, which can directly alert school administrators and even police in the event of an emergency at the touch of a button.

“One of the reasons the officers in Apalachee were able to respond and apprehend the suspect as quickly as they did was due to the Centegix badges,” Cahoon said. 

The badges can alert a medical emergency or even put the school on lockdown depending on how they are pressed. The badges can also provide an exact location to school and emergency personnel if needed. 

Calhoun said TCSS has had the badges in place for about a year and a half.

Locked doors and weapons systems are a good step, but they are only as good as the weakest link. That’s why SROs at the schools diligently patrol the schools to make sure doors aren’t propped open and nothing is amiss. They can do it alone, which is why they encourage students and parents to report potential threats.

Calhoun said in this day and age, they have to take all threats seriously and investigate them as if they are a real danger.

“If you see something, say something,” he said.