ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia State Board of Education is demanding that the state spend more money on security guards and portable panic alarm buttons after a shooting at Apalachee High School northeast of Atlanta left four people dead.
Richard Woods, a statewide Republican, also said Monday that he wants to expand a state-funded program to provide mental health support to students and facilitate better information sharing about threats between police, schools and other agencies.
“It is critical that we redouble our efforts to secure our schools and protect every student in our state,” Woods said in a statement.
Woods is the second state politician to put forward proposals following the Sept. 4 shooting at Winder High School. His ideas for expanding mental health care and information sharing are similar to those expressed last week by Republican Speaker of the state House of Representatives Jon Burns of Newington.
Governor Brian Kemp has said he will review all suggestions, but said the investigation is still yielding recent findings. A spokesman for Republican Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones said he is preparing a response.
Democrats have sharply criticized Republicans, arguing that the shooting was a result of Republicans loosening gun laws in Georgia. Woods has not proposed any changes to gun laws.
Teachers Richard Aspinwall (39) and Cristina Irimie (53) as well as students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo (both 14) died in the shooting. Nine other people were injured – seven of them were shot.
Investigators believe 14-year-old Colt Gray committed the shooting. As an adult, he is charged with four counts of murder. His 54-year-old father, Colin Gray, has been charged with first-degree murder, manslaughter and child abuse. Investigators say Colin Gray gave his son access to an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle despite knowing the teenager was a danger to himself and others.
Woods’ request for information sharing reflects the fact that Colt and his father were questioned by a Jackson County sheriff’s deputy in 2023 about an online post threatening a school shooting. Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said her office did not find enough evidence to press charges. It is unclear whether Colt Gray’s previous schools were notified of the threats.
The superintendent also said he wants to expand mental health services for students. The state’s voluntary Apex program steers students toward counseling. The program covered 540,000 of Georgia’s 1.75 million students in 2022-2023, or about 31%.
The state budget, which took effect July 1, includes more than $100 million in ongoing funding for school security, enough to give each public school $47,000 annually for security. Kemp and others have said they want to apply that money to pay for at least one security guard for each school, but local school superintendents have said the cost of such a guard is significantly higher. Woods said he wants the state to spend more money specifically on security guards and alarm systems, but did not specify how much.
Meghan Frick, spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Education, said Woods “hopes to have an open discussion with lawmakers and other partners to finalize more specific details, including the specifics of the APEX expansion and data sharing.”
Burns also said last week that he would explore ways to intercept guns before they get into schools and raise penalties for threatening schools. He also said House Republicans would again promote secure gun storage through a tax break.
State Democrats had little success with a bill that would have made it a misdemeanor to negligently fail to secure firearms that children have access to. Rep. Michelle Au, a Democrat from Johns Creek, has promised to reintroduce the proposal.
