White County BOE assures parents they are concerned about school safety

With several school threats making news in the last week, including one in White County,  the White County Board of Education took several minutes during its meeting Thursday night to discuss the issue.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jeff Wilson the current avenues that school officials use in addressing school safety, but he promised they would add to the options.

"We are going to continue to look at ideas. We have other ideas we are going to look at that we as a school system want to do to ensure safety, and we will be bring those forward,” said Wilson.

Wilson said a costly item - mental health advisors for students - could help the situation. 

"I truly  believe that if we could hire a mental health counselor at the middle school and a mental health counselor at the high school,  it would really help diminish the opportunity for somebody to come in and do this," Wilson said. "It is a cost and it is something we have to talk about."

In addition, Wilson said it may be time to offer other education choices for students with behavioral problems.

"We are  in very deep discussions about alternative school and offering some kind of alternative school setting," Wilson said.

Wilson told the school board and parents at the meeting that prior to the deadly Florida school shooting, school officials had scheduled an emergency drill at one of the schools during the upcoming spring break. Also, White County Emergency Management Agency Director David Murphy and Georgia Emergency Management Agency officials plan to conduct safety walk-throughs next week at each of the county schools, checking out safety concerns. 

Prior to the safety discussion the board heard from one concerned parent. Carla Puchstein on one hand complimented the school on the handling of  Feb. 15 threat allegedly made by a student,  but then expressed concern about the handling of a threat overheard by her daughter back in October at the middle school in Cleveland.  

Puchstein told the board that if the boy who allegedly made that threat is allowed to come back to school, she will take her daughter out of the school system. 

School Board Chairman Missy Jarrard told her "We hear you. We’re making notes and will talk about everything.”