Angry Apalachee parents criticize school board: “My child doesn’t feel safe”

Tara Shipman was among angry Apalachee High School parents and community members who made emotional appeals this week for the school district to take increased security measures after the deadly mass shooting.

The widespread concern comes nearly a month after suspected shooter Colt Gray, 14, brought an AR-15 rifle to school on Sept. 4 and killed two students and two teachers at the high school in Winder, Georgia.

“My biggest thing is that Colt Gray was riding the bus with my kid and she was kind of devastated that he was literally sitting two seats in front of her and carrying not just a small gun but a huge rifle for three hours before executing “I carried out his plan that could have just been avoided if he had had a clear book bag,” Shipman said during Tuesday’s Barrow County School System meeting.

Nearly all speakers called on the board to require clear or mesh book bags and metal or weapon detectors at doors for students.

“He wouldn’t have been able to put it in there if we had mesh bags or school bus monitors,” Shipman said. “When I was growing up, we had school bus monitors. Whether it was a reliable senior at the school or people in JROTC, there was some kind of reliable person who acted as a second set of eyes for the bus drivers,” because we also have to think about their safety. It starts with the children getting on the bus.

Students returned to the high school for half days on September 24th and full-time classes will resume on October 14th. Many speakers at the school board meeting said they feared that preventative safety measures still had not been implemented upon their return to school.

Dr. Matt Thompson, the Barrow County School System’s chief of staff, did not say whether school officials are considering implementing a clear or mesh bookbag policy. While Thompson said the school is considering options such as metal detectors, he urged the community to be patient while it sorts out logistics.

“Are they actually doing exactly what they say? Spoiler alert: some of them aren’t,” Thompson said during the meeting. “The second aspect of this is efficiency in accommodating students. We need to efficiently get nearly 2,000 students into our secondary schools every day. If you create a scenario where you have a backup at the start of school, like students are trying to do, if the process goes in and that goes out into the hallways or outside of the building, you’ve created a whole other security risk.”

Sean Schultz, who has two children in the school district, including one at Apalachee High School, urged officials to seriously consider the failing detectors.

“It’s been said that it’s not 100 percent accurate, and I agree with that 100 percent,” Schultz said. “If we stop six out of ten, 60 percent, I think it’s worth it. They’re not that expensive.”

Schultz paused for a moment and continued: “No offense to anyone, but the salaries we pay for a board of directors are significantly higher than what a few metal detectors would cost.”

After students returned to Apalachee High School, the BCSS website said it took several immediate safety measures, including an increased presence of school resource officers and Georgia State Patrol officers on campus.

Officials said they were evaluating long-term plans involving local, state and federal law enforcement. Students also had access to therapy dogs and additional mental health counselors.

Still, Schultz said, “My child doesn’t feel safe returning. It seems like we brought in a lot of extra officers and staff in the first week and he is.” [my son] I’ve already told myself that most of them are no longer there.

Newsweek has reached out to BCSS for comment.

Details about Colt Gray and his parents emerge

Colt Gray remains behind bars on murder charges and will be tried as an adult in the fatal shooting at Apalachee High School.

Colt’s father, Colin Gray, was arrested after the school shooting. He faces four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of child abuse.

Colin Gray Colt reportedly bought the rifle he used in the school shooting as a Christmas gift, even after the FBI visited her home because of alleged online threats about the middle school shooting.

Colt’s mother and Colin’s ex-wife, Marcee Gray, were charged with elder abuse last month after she was accused of tying her mother, Deborah Polhamus, 73, to a chair and leaving her there for nearly 24 hours, according to court documents shows that were shared The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Polhamus was allegedly found after one of Marcee’s sisters, who lives in Florida, was unable to reach her in November 2023 and asked a friend to check on her at her house. There, Polhamus was found tied to a chair by his wrists and ankles and freed by a family friend.

She was arrested in Barrow County and faces charges of exploitation and intimidation of a disabled adult or elderly person, false imprisonment, second-degree criminal damage to property and theft, WSB-TV reported. If found guilty, she could face up to 20 years in prison.

In December 2023, she was returned to Ben Hill County, where she was granted a $5,300 bond and released in April.

According to The Independent, Marcee Gray has a lengthy criminal history dating back to March 2007 and includes five vehicle-related offenses including reckless driving, improper right turning and drunk driving.

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