On a frigid Saturday morning, Sheriff Stacy Nicholson, School Resource Officer Captain Mike Gobble and Gilmer County Schools Superintendent Dr. Brian Ridley spent two hours talking to citizens about school safety.
“You know what the biggest obstacle that people like me, a government leader, you know what we face?” Sheriff Nicholson asked the crowd of a little more than 20 people. “An uneducated public about what is going on about their government. So, I applaud anybody that gets up on a Saturday morning and makes the effort to come out and hear about anything involving your elected leaders.”
Nicholson and Gobble were invited by Gilmer Citizens Forum, a newly formed group, to speak about the issue on Nov. 23 at the American Legion.
Gilmer County Sheriffs Office and Gilmer County Schools work together to station a school resource officer (SRO) at every school.
“They help foot the bill 50/50,” Nicholson said.
Captain Gobble said there are eight SROs, including him, with 195 years combined experience and 34 years of military experience.
He said all the officers are trained and go through active shooter training to prepare for all scenarios.
Officers are trained to attack any situation involving a school shooter. As soon as they arrive, they will engage and as other officers arrive they will join the first officers on the scene.
If there is an active shooter in a school, everyone from the sheriff’s office to city departments to state law enforcement agencies becomes part of the team to end the threat, Gobble said.
“I don’t want to discuss what we do and how we do it,” he said. But, he wanted the public to know the agencies train together and have student safety as their priority.
Gobble said they work with the school system to make the campuses as safe as possible.
“It’s still a school, not a prison, and we want to remember that,” he said.
Gobble said recently Dr. Ridley worked with Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency who sent an undercover agent who attempted to enter Gilmer County School buildings.
“We pulled the SROs back to see if anybody else would let them in,” Dr. Ridley said.
The GEMA agent tried to get into every school.
“They did not get into any school,” Gobble said. “The teachers did what they were supposed to do by the book, by the training. I mean it was perfect.”
Teachers, administrators and staff have a huge role and responsibility in keeping the students safe, Gobble said.
Another part of the job for SROs is building a relationship with students. They want the children and teens to know the officers are a resource and can be trusted.
Part of this is to mentor the students, but it also allows students to feel comfortable reporting issues to the officers.
Students are often aware of issues before the adults.
“It’s a pretty good sign when we have kids reporting things to deputies before their parents,” Nicholson said.
Metal detectors were brought up to the three men. Ridley told the group he was in charge of working a metal detector in a previous system. He said they are not that effective.
The schools do have metal detector wands, and they use them in targeted cases.
Mentoring is one thing the public can do to help students who are in need, the men said.
There are two mentoring programs in the school system, and they are always looking for volunteers.
Nicholson said he enforces a zero tolerance policy for weapons in schools, even toy weapons.
“The kids have got to know that it is not going to happen,” he said.
An ‘icky’ feeling was said by the men to be something people should pay attention to when dealing with possible situations. If someone doesn’t feel right about something, they should report it to an officer.
“I would rather you get the ‘icky’ feeling and be wrong,” said Ridley.
One of the things the men identified as a need from the state is mental health resources. Right now they said there are not enough beds or facilities for people who need help. The sheriff said jails all over the state are full of people waiting for an opening in a mental health facility.
All three men said they take school safety very seriously.
“We are doing what we can, but it is not absolute,” Nicholson said. “I tell you what won’t happen, we aren’t going to sit right outside the door and listen to gunfire and be looking and waiting to see who is coming to help us.”
Ridley said they have a great relationship with the sheriff’s office, city police and the state. He also pointed out the system has badges for teachers where they can lock down the school and a system where they can run background checks on visitors.
“We do school safety all day, every day,” he said.