Battleground: Ballot Box - Lawmakers Huddle: New School Safety Measures

Caption

A memorial is seen at Apalachee High School after the Wednesday school shooting, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Winder, Ga.

Credit: AP Photo/Mike Stewart

Donna Lowry: Back to school means more than returning to learning. This year, a new Georgia law requires districts to take proactive measures to keep children and anyone working in schools safe. This week's Lawmakers' Huddle focuses on how school safety topped the list of priorities during the recent legislative session. Most Georgia schools had only been in session a few weeks when, last year, on September 4th, the tragic shooting of two students and two teachers occurred at Apalachee High School in Winder. Immediately, lawmakers started looking for ways to help schools beef up security measures. Joining me to discuss those efforts is the recently elected State Senate Majority Leader, Jason Anavitarte of Dallas.

Welcome to Lawmakers' Huddle, and congratulations on your new leadership position.

Jason Anavitarte: Hey Donna, thank you so much, and it’s great to be with you as always.

Donna Lowry: I want to focus on the fact that there are two significant aspects to the new law that you served as lead sponsor on in the Senate, SB 17. I want to discuss each one, starting with the requirement that all Georgia schools install a mobile panic button system. Explain what that's all about. How that technology works.

Jason Anavitarte: Yeah, and thanks for talking about this legislation. Basically, this law, it's not a foreign concept for many school districts around the state. I think most school districts around the say to have some sort of technology or panic alert system that they've employed in their school districts, trying to get rid of old technology, push button technology to really create a coordinated sense that when there's a health emergency, which back when Atlanta Public Schools adopted this technology. It was for when there was healthcare issues with staff or students in the schools. And as the technology evolved, we've seen it throughout many counties, including my own home counties, to where the technology is connected to E911, the public safety folks, so that when there is an active shooter or an emergency or a security incident, everybody is alerted and the technology also can take you to the location of where that incident took place. So, it's saving lives in the sense that it's taking time off the clock to get to people, to get to kids, to really protect them from kind of more time going on and on and on under old and equated technologies.

Donna Lowry: I remember when, for instance, Cobb County Schools installed it back in 2016 or 17. So this has been around for some schools for a while. And while the law took effect this July 1st of this year, schools have a year to implement it, those who haven't done it. And, I understand that there could be as many as 80% of schools that already have it in Georgia. Is that what you're hearing?

Jason Anavitarte: Yeah, we know it's more than a majority of the schools, and I think as time has gone on, I mean, we saw after the Apalachee incident, I mean one of the data points that was shared with us was I think Barrow County had put the technology in place literally a week before the tragedy incident happened. So, it's an evolving technology, basically we've seen around the state, around the country, our EMA directors that are in each of our counties train with the school resource offices, school police departments for those school districts that have their own police departments and obviously the sheriff offices and police departments on a county-wide basis. So, a lot of training is happening in terms of incident management, in terms of, you know, when there's a threat. I mean very similar to when there is a severe weather incident, we have students and teachers go through those exercises, but during an active shooter drill, which I know in Paulding County, our sheriff's and school district leaders do those on a regular basis. Basically, how the technology is deployed, are there opportunities to improve, but also too, are there gaps or things that need to be fixed? And that's why there's constant training happening around the state. So, we need to really applaud our law enforcement leaders and our EMA directors who are involved with this.

Donna Lowry: Well, the law is named Ricky and Alyssa's law. Richard "Ricky" Aspenwall was a math teacher and coach killed at Apalachee High School. Alyssa was a freshman when she was killed in the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida in 2018. Her parents have traveled the country to push for laws to require panic button systems in schools, and Georgia became the eighth state at the time to approve the law. On the day the governor signed the legislation, I spoke to Alyssa's parents, Ilan and Lori Alhadeff. Here's Ilan on what their efforts mean.

Ilan Alhadeff: It really promotes Alyssa's legacy, knowing that her death was not in vain. Her legacy is very important. She was a fighter every step of the way. And to see this in our name really work and protect everyone. You know, she was inherently very protective of everyone around her. She always brought the crowds and was always defensive of everyone in her circle. And, this is so nice to see and so vitally important to see that we're able to save lives. You know, this actually, in Apalachee shooting, it saved lives. A panic alert went off. And if it was not for that, more children and staff could have been killed that day. So, this is just a clear example of how it saved lives. If it was there in 2018, our daughter would be here with us today.

Donna Lowry: Alyssa's mother, Lori, says the panic buttons are just one safety measure.

Lori Alhadeff: Training. Training. Training. It's so important that we make sure that when we implement these safety measures that our teachers are properly trained so that there's muscle memory. And when these emergencies happen, they go back to their training, and they know what to do.

Donna Lowry: Leader Anavitarte, when did you first meet Alyssa's parents?

Jason Anavitarte: So, we met almost two years ago through a mutual friend when I learned about this kind of technology and what happened in Florida. And, being a former school board member, my wife's a teacher, I've got three kids in public schools, we talk about security challenges in our schools, and some schools being overpopulated. We've talked about what happens in that moment in time. And so, when Lori worked with me in year one of getting this bill passed and then it stalled in the House, you know, we were already focused on it. We were going to get this done. And then tragically, what happened at Apalachee happened. I had the honor to meet with Ricky's wife, and she got involved with getting this bill passed, working with myself, Senator Dixon, Senator Cowsert, Senator Ginn, that represent the Barrow County/Athens area. Because of just what was going on behind the scenes in terms of the discussion of keeping our schools safe. And we've seen some really great leadership from Governor Kemp and this General Assembly year after year in terms of school security grants to harden our schools, but also the mental health aspect in terms those investments in terms of school counselors. So, I don't think we're done. I think over the long run, I mean, this needs to be a constant discussion at the forefront of what's happening every day. In our schools because this could happen anywhere.

Donna Lowry: Yeah, I actually want to mention a few of the things that some schools are doing, such as installing metal detectors, not just in schools, but also at football games. One school district has been installing shield systems in the front offices of middle and elementary schools in the district to require all visitors to buzz in to gain entry. That district has also hired a security director to train the school resource officers who are now present in every school, and two or three of them in the high schools. The governor's budget over the last few years has provided for some funding, and as technology continues to evolve, won't that money have to remain a priority?

Jason Anavitarte: Yeah, I think it does. I mean, I have one school district in Polk County, Georgia that basically has metal detectors, school resource officers, police officers. It's probably, you know, from a physical security perspective, one of the safest school districts, if not the safest school district in the state of Georgia. But I think, as you and I know, weapons, things, security, incidents, you, know, threats can happen anywhere, and a metal detector is not going to be foolproof. I mean a lot of these things are not going to totally stop the incidents that we saw in Florida that we unfortunately saw at Apalachee. I think it's going to be vigilant students and willing to speak up and if you see something, say something. I mean I know I tell our kids that all the time and the kids in our community and even growing up from being in DeKalb County schools, and the crazy things me and my brother saw growing up. A lot of kids carried weapons. I mean their friends would bring weapons on campus, and that was before metal detectors and things were really prevalent like we've seen some school districts today. So, I think the reality is, is passing gun laws, the stop gun laws, and all that kind of stuff is not going to really change the dynamics of what we've seeing in our state. I think it's educating our kids or parents being responsible, know what their kids are doing. But, empowering teachers and our principals who are on the front lines of a lot of what's happening in their building in terms of the culture they're building to have a bigger say in what happens from a security standpoint, but also a student population standpoint in terms of those dynamics.

Donna Lowry: Let's talk about another major part of the law. It mandates real-time digital mapping to help first responders. And even though it's not in effect until July of next year, some of that is already happening now. Explain what that's all about.

Jason Anavitarte: So one of the things, whether we use the Apalachee example or any other threat incident example at elementary school, high school, is for when first responders show up on campus to know the layout of the campus. Where are locks? Where are doors? Where are people? Where things stored? And, that could be everything inside the school building or even on the athletic facility at the football stadium. Where are the emergency entrances? So, if a fire truck, a SWAT vehicle, or anything has to come on campus to save lives or protect lives, they know where those entry and exit points are. And also too, if they're trying to track down an assailant, they also have a better idea of where to literally go, especially with the alert system being in place under Ricky and Alyssa's law. How do they get to that pinpointed identified location where the threat may exist? So, basically what this is requiring is for all the school districts and buildings in the state to be mapped, so that if I'm a law enforcement agent in a maybe a neighboring County and I'm coming over to help my brothers and sisters respond to an incident, I have that real time mapping data as I'm headed to the scene. And so when I arrive at the scene I can basically engage, and I want the same page with everyone else because I think Many people may think, you know, unless you live in those communities or you go through these threat assessment exercises that everybody in law enforcement may be familiar with a piece of property or a building. And a lot of times they're collecting data or understanding the situation while they're en route to that facility. Especially if you have federal authorities involved like the ATF or FBI, or even the GBI, you know playing supporting cast to local law enforcement. And, the same goes for firefighters or EMS workers while they're on site because they're also under threat too if there's an active shooter situation or something else going on. So, all it is basically requiring that this data be present. And it's just a common-sense approach to basically making sure that our frontline responders have everything to help them be equipped to respond to those incidents.

Donna Lowry: It just makes sense to have this big picture look at what's going on for even the smallest schools. And as I mentioned, not in effect until July 1st of next year. So, they have a while the schools that haven't done that.

Jason Anavitarte: Yeah, so basically they're setting policy work in the State Department of Education in terms of their policies and procedures. And then for the school districts that may not have some of these things in place, it gives them an opportunity to work with local law enforcement and their public safety agencies to make sure that the policies are aligning with the people who are going in the doors and saving lives. And I think that's always forgotten to is, you know, we have to trust the people who are the experts and who are knowledgeable. And nothing against my wife or other teachers. But I think the people who are coming and trying to almost save lives, you know, their history and experience needs to kind of set the precedent of what we're doing in these situations from a planning perspective.

Donna Lowry: And this is personal for you in the sense that your wife is a teacher. You have children in the schools.

Jason Anavitarte: Yeah, I mean, we've, we talk about these kinds of things all the time. I mean I think it's a parent's responsibility or a guardian's responsibility to make sure their kids are educated in terms of kind of what's going on. You know, there's, no, even growing up, I mean, bad things can happen at any moment in this world. I mean let's just be real about it. And I think being prepared and just having, you know, street smarts, knowing when things just kind of feel off or you hear of other students maybe bullying other students or chatter that could lead up to an incident, whether that's online or that's kind of, like you and I are doing right now, kind of face-to-face is to report those things to the proper authorities or go to that safe person you trust in your school, whether it's your teacher, your counselor, your principal, or a lot of times you say it's the school safety resource officer so they can help. And, there's ways too, for if you're a student. You know, to be protected in the sense of your identity, because I think a lot of students, you know, they report things or, you know, being bullied, and they worry about retaliation, which is a real-life thing that I think a lot about adolescent kids stress over. And so, I think we've got to create these safe conversation environments in our schools to where before these kinds of incidents happen information and data can be shared. And it goes from in person to, you know, these kids’ phones that they're, you know, bringing in and out of schools.

Donna Lowry: And let's have these conversations take place beginning with this conversation, which is really crucial just as school begins. I want to thank you so much Senate Majority Leader, Jason Anavitarte, for coming on Lawmaker's Huddle.

Jason Anavitarte: Thank you so much.

Donna Lowry: For Lawmakers Huddle, I'm Donna Lowry.