Kornegay

THOMASVILLE — In light of a recent school shooting in Florida — and the deaths of 17 students and staff — local public school system officials said plans are in place to respond quickly to shootings.

The Thomas County School System has a comprehensive plan for ensuring the safety of students and staff to the maximum extent possible, Superintendent Dr. Dusty Kornegay said.

“We have several layers of safety nets in place to try to prevent situations like we have seen in other schools across the nation,” Kornegay said. “We invest heavily in knowing our students, monitoring Internet activity, and intervening with counseling, mental health services and law enforcement quickly when there is a cause for concern. We are fortunate to have a robust system in place using both human and artificial intelligence to detect potential threats online.”

The system has strong relationships with Georgia Pines, Archbold Northside, private therapists and local law enforcement to provide the school district with avenues to report concerns, obtain mental health counseling, have risk assessments completed and keep law enforcement informed of potential threats.

“Our counselors and administrators place heavy emphasis on getting to know our students so students will feel comfortable sharing concerns with them,” Kornegay said. “Some of our procedures are not publicly shared to prevent a would-be intruder from being able to circumvent them.”

Armed school resource officers on duty in county schools are backed up by the Thomas County Sheriff’s Office. The local special weapons and tactics team (SWAT) conducts routine after-hours drills in school buildings.

“Each time an incident occurs elsewhere, we study how it happened and attempt to evaluate how our plans would have worked under that scenario,” Kornegay said. “We are currently re-assessing our plans with the administration of each school and will identify any weaknesses of which we are aware and adjust accordingly.”

The accused shooter at Parkland, Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School reportedly had been expelled from the school where the shootings took place.

The Thomas County School System expels very few students, Kornegay said, but when a former student or an adult is banned from campuses for safety reasons, school administrators and school resource officers are shown photographs of the individual so they can be aware that the individual is unwelcome on campus.

Expelled students are not allowed on any Thomasville City schools property, said Dr. Laine Reichert, city schools superintendent. Recent discipline records do not show expelled students, Reichert added.

All city schools have a crisis management plan that covers issues ranging from inclement weather procedures to intruder/lockdown procedure, said Dr. Daniel Oldham, city schools assistant superintendent.

In the event of an active shooter scenario, each school would follow the intruder/lockdown procedure. The school principal or designee would contact law enforcement and the district office. Once law enforcement engages the situation, the school district would turn action over to law enforcement.

A central control center is established where the superintendent or designee and law enforcement would work together during the event and post-event, Oldham said.

Once law enforcement is on-site, a building will be cleared, and students will be evacuated to designated safe zones. From there, students will be reunited with parents and guardians.

Oldham said that if an alert is issued about an intruder in a building, teachers will close and lock classroom doors. No student will be allowed to leave the room for any reason, unless directed by an administrator.

During a lockdown, teachers would be instructed to stay with students and allow appropriate authorities to handle the situation.

Students would not be released from class until an “all clear” has been given over the public address system or until directed by the local police authorities.

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820