JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Another school shooting claimed the lives of four people and injured at least nine others on Wednesday in Georgia.
A student at Apalachee High School in Winder, which is just outside of Atlanta, opened fire at the school, sending students scrambling for shelter in their classroom and eventually to the football stadium.
Two students and two teachers were fatally shot. The 14-year-old student was arrested and charged as an adult with murder, officials said.
The episode is just the latest among dozens of school shootings across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.
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On Wednesday, Neptune Beach Police posted on Facebook that they were aware of a photograph posted online that showed a weapon, body armor, and an inferred threat of violence being shared within Fletcher High School.
Duval County Public Schools sent us the message that Principal Dean Ledford sent to families:
Hello Fletcher families, this is Principal Ledford calling. I sent you an earlier message about a threatening social media post, which we became aware of today thanks to a tip from a student. I just learned that you may not have received that message due to a glitch in our system. Nonetheless, I am calling back with a positive update.
At the time of my first call, the threatening post was under investigation. I am pleased to report that School Police have now identified the child who made that post and have intervened with that child and their family. The good news for us is that there is no credible threat to our school. Again, there is no credible threat to our school.
In an abundance of caution, we will still be supported with additional police on campus in the morning. Additionally, I apologize if you didn’t receive the earlier message, and we are looking into that with our new family communication provider. Thanks for your attention, and I look forward to seeing everyone at school tomorrow.
News4JAX also spoke with St. Johns County Schools Assistant Superintendent for Student Support Services Paul Abbatinozzi about what the district is doing to ensure their students are safe. He said they do risk assessments for their facilities every year.
“We do site visits. We work with our school administration with regards to visitations and looking at what we feel might be any potential deficiencies at our schools, and we make sure that we’re adjusting those not just to meet the state statutes,” he said. “But things that are in the best interest of students and school safety.”
The Duval County Public Schools police department joined with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department to hold an active shooter drill at Ed White High School in June.
Sheriff T.K. Waters addressed concerns at one of JSO’s town hall meetings about school safety and the measures JSO would use to protect Duval County students.
“There’s a school board police department, which the school board and the schools are their primary responsibility. But as a partnering agency, we train with response to those types of incidents. Second, we’re going in,” Waters said. “If it’s one person that shows up to a school. One police officer that shows up to a school. If it’s me, I’m going in. I’m not waiting. I’m not going to take time to wait. Our job is to respond. Our job is to go in, and our job is to take care of any threat that harms the most precious thing that we have in our communities, which is our kids. So, I can make this guarantee to you. If something like that were to happen. Again, God forbid that happens ever, but if something like that were to ever happen here, we’ve been training on it since Columbine. That we go inside these schools and we take care of business.”
News4JAX asked DCPS about its preparation for an active shooter. The school district referred us to its website, where it talks about safety and security measures.
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St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office and St. Johns County Fire Rescue also put out a video showing its preparation tactics in the event of an active shooter.
Abbatinozzi said safety is a top priority for St. Johns County Schools. While they prepare for the worst possible scenario, they hope and pray they never have to deal with an active shooter.
“We feel like we’re in the right spot with regards to our training and our drills,” Abbatinozzi said. “And one of the biggest pieces we also have is our relationship with our local law enforcement, our Sheriff’s Department and our city police and they train in our schools with regards to these types of situations.”
St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick said the agency trained at multiple schools to enhance procedures and tactics.
The sheriff’s office said it has continuously enhanced security in its school over the past few years.
“We’ve implemented the Mobile Panic Alarm System ‘CENTEGIX,’ which is a software that allows school staff to immediately send an alert in the case of an emergency. Our Real Time Intelligence Center (RTIC) analysts have access to all St. Johns County school cameras. If an emergency alert is activated, analysts can immediately take control of the cameras, triage the threat, and provide immediate intelligence information to responding deputies. Technology in newer schools allows RTIC analysts to control door locks inside the schools (locking a threat out or steering a threat to us instead of students). A Youth Resource Deputy is assigned to every school in St. Johns County. YRDs participate in school safety trainings and drills throughout the year. They are viewed as “first responders”…under Sheriff Hardwick. These men and women are passionate about protecting our kids and see this as a prestigious assignment,” an SJSO spokesperson said.
If parents or students are concerned about potential threats, Abbatinozzi stresses the importance of “See Something, Say Something.” Also, he said students and parents can use an application called Fortify Florida to make anonymous reports.
“We can go ahead and get a lot of those leads ahead of time and follow up,” he said. “But one of those biggest pieces is creating that culture in your schools where there’s a comfort level for students to come and see adults and come and have those conversations and share that information with us.”
He also said parents can know that St. Johns County Schools is doing everything in its power to make sure it’s prepared for an active shooter. Also, there are resources for students if they’re feeling uneasy about going to school.
“All of our schools have a team of school counselors there,” Abbatinozzi said. “We have social workers in our schools. We have mental health counselors in our schools. So there’s avenues for children to reach out that that may feel like they’re in a little bit of a crisis or they have questions related to this.”
How do you feel about local school districts and law enforcement agencies’ efforts to keep Northeast Florida students safe?
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