POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. — Parents are coming together to create a new safety and security plan for their children’s school.
They are parents of students at McEachern High School in Cobb County, which is one of the schools in metro Atlanta traumatized by shootings on their campuses this month alone.
The parents are demanding action, and results.
Thursday night at McEachern, not quite 100 people -- a fraction of McEachern High School’s students and parents -- showed up to come up with a plan to stop school violence there.
But the parents and students who did show up believe they’ll be a powerful, collective voice for change.
“More than anything else, we’re married to this community, we’re married to this school,” said one parent at the meeting, Benjamin Carter. “And we want to keep it safe.”
They believe the Cobb County School Board and superintendent will hear them, and implement their recommendations.
Benjamin and Sharon Carter said they know what they would like the plan to include -- starting with the basics, such as a vulnerability assessment of McEachern, and more school resource officers.
“More funds provided, to make the schools safer,” Benjamin Carter said, “securing the entrances, name tags for the kids, more parent involvement. I want to know where the money is going, it needs to be going to better security.”
Others at the meeting called for facial recognition video systems inside the schools, and license plate recognition systems in the parking lots.
“Being proactive, versus being reactive,” said Sharon Carter.
Cobb County School Board Member Tre’ Hutchins, who organized this series of town hall meetings, said once the plan is further along he will have a better idea of the potential costs, but he said the new state allocations for local school security improvements should help fund it.
Hutchins is already talking with other schools across metro Atlanta about collective action.
“I think this is going to allow us to have some action items that our school districts can use to ensure school safety across the board,” once and for all, he said.
Hutchins is urging parents to attend the next Cobb County School Board meeting in two weeks, as they begin to finalize their plan of action.