January 8, 2025 • 19 mins
This week's episode of The Inside Scoop dives deep into the crucial topic of safety in Cobb County schools. Former principal and now Assistant Superintendent of School Safety Operations, Josh Morreale, shares his extensive experience and insights into the evolving landscape of school safety over his 27-year career. He discusses the critical partnership between school administrators and the Cobb Schools police department, emphasizing the importance of communication and collaboration in maintaining a secure environment for students and staff. Morreale highlights the significant advancements in technology and awareness that have transformed safety protocols since the early 2000s, particularly after pivotal events that shaped school safety policies. Listeners will gain valuable understanding of the proactive measures in place and the community's role in ensuring a safe educational atmosphere.
Guest: Josh Morreale, Assistant Superintendent of School Safety Operations
Click on a timecode to jump to the topic:
Chapters:
- [00:00] - Introduction to Safety in Cobb Schools
- [00:21] - Understanding School Safety Operations
- [07:30] - The Evolution of School Safety
- [11:10] - Investigating Threats in Schools
- [15:40] - Maintaining School Safety: Roles and Strategies
- [18:42] - Safety Initiatives in Education
(If the timecode links above don't work in your podcast player, visit "Podcast Home" below.)
Useful links from the podcast:
- Cobb Shield - This page contains info about Vector Alert, a resource for reporting safety concerns.
- Cobb Schools Police Department
Podcast Home:
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Cobb Sports Podcast:
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The Cobb County School District
Takeaways:
- The safety of students is a top priority that requires constant planning and collaboration.
- Cobb schools have evolved their safety strategies significantly since the early 1990s, focusing on various threats.
- Every safety tip received is thoroughly investigated to ensure the protection of students and staff.
- A strong partnership exists between school administrators and the police department for effective safety operations.
- Technological advancements have greatly improved the capabilities for maintaining school safety since 27 years ago.
- The 'See Something, Say Something' initiative empowers everyone to contribute to school safety efforts.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
All things safety in Cobbschools is our topic this week on
the Inside Scoop.
Hello and welcome back to theInside scoop.
I'm David Owen.
Give us a Like, subscribe andshare this episode if you get something
out of our discussion here today.
The safety of our students isevery parent's concern.
(00:21):
We've done episodes onspecific aspects of safety before,
but never an overall look atthe full picture.
Here to give us the scoop onsafety is the assistant superintendent
of School Safety operations,Josh Morial.
Josh, welcome back to the podcast.
Good to see you again.
So you were here, I believe,talking about what can be said to
(00:43):
the public in times of crisisand what cannot be said.
First for the viewers, let'sgo a little bit into your past.
Tell us a little bit aboutJosh Morial.
So I've been in Cobb countyschools as an employee for 27 years.
I started here as a teacherback in the 1990s and moved up to
(01:04):
assistant principal and servedas an assistant principal, then became
a principal.
Two different levels herewithin the Cobb county school system.
Spent a lot of timespecifically at high school where
I was able to really learn andnavigate the operations of running
a high school.
And that was I've known you,I've been here for not quite 20 years,
(01:28):
but I've always known you as aprincipal of Osborne, I believe.
Yes, I was at osborne for over11 years.
Okay.
Yeah.
And that has come a long waysince the early.
You said in the 90s, right?
1990S.
So what is your, your currentrole now, specifically as it relates
(01:49):
to our police department herein Cobb schools?
A lot of people don't realizethat we have police department just
like Marietta has theirs andCobb county has theirs and Acworth
Austell, we have our own.
So tell us a little bit abouthow you relate to the Cobb Schools
police department.
Sure.
(02:10):
So again, I am a principal at heart.
That is my background.
I served as a principal for along time in this county.
I am not a post certifiedpolice officer.
So the two are not connected.
We are totally different, butwe have a strong partnership, a strong
relationship.
We work together daily.
(02:32):
And I am at policeheadquarters at least once a day
talking with the leadership inheadquarters on anything that might
be going on that I need tohelp administrators navigate.
So the police, they take thecriminal side.
Okay.
School administrators andmyself, we take the school policy
(02:57):
and whether it be discipline,communicating with parents or locking
a school down, we work in thatrelation to keeping school safe.
Where PD the police departmentis working on, they're coming in
and they're going toneutralize whatever the threat might
be, and we need to be out oftheir way.
(03:19):
Well, and that actually, thatbrings to mind the fact that there's
a line, Right, between astudent, say, misbehaving in a class
versus a student doingsomething potentially criminal.
Right.
Is that kind of what you'retalking about is helping the school
(03:40):
leadership, principal andassistant principals, understand
where that line is and alsomaking sure that the police department
is available should somethingcome up.
Is that kind of.
It does.
And, you know, anytime there'sa criminal investigation, the criminal
investigation is first theschool administrator investigating
(04:02):
and then looking at it.
Was there a policy infractionthat might need school discipline?
That follows.
We cannot impede a policeinvestigation as school administrators.
So part of my job is, yes,making sure that the PD is okay and
school administrators are notgetting ahead of themselves and possibly
ruining a police investigation.
(04:23):
But at the same time, if weever had a more serious threat, making
sure that administrators,teachers, are all trained on what
to do in a more serious situation.
Yeah, that's a heavy liftright there because you've got.
How many employees do we have somewhere?
We have around 19,000 employees.
I was going to guess somewherearound 20,000.
That's just incredible.
What did safety look like whenyou first came on board?
(04:46):
Yeah, so I've worked for fiveor six different superintendents,
and, you know, every few yearswe have a change in board members.
All of them, through my 27years in Cobb had a focus on safety,
but it was always a differentfocus on safety.
Recent years, oursuperintendent, Mr.
(05:06):
Ragsdale, has really had tomake that a priority for him.
And it's his number onepriority, he often says, is safety
of all the students and allthe staff in Cobb County.
27 years ago, our safety wasmore around weather, fire drills,
and making sure we're preparedto keep students safe in that aspect.
(05:30):
Now, the realm ofpossibilities of what we have to
prepare for is a lot greaterthan it was, let's say, 27 years
ago.
And our superintendent, ourboard, has made that a priority,
that we are prepared for everything.
And that's the work I do.
Yeah, you can't.
You can.
I presume you can never guessevery potential scenario to defend
(05:54):
against, but the ones that youcan isolate and figure out, being
as prepared as possible forthat is key, right?
Yeah.
I've always had the mindset ofprior planning prevents poor performance.
So with that said constantplanning, we could adjust a plan
to meet whatever comes at us.
And that could be from weatherto active student situation that
(06:20):
we need to tend to and do whatwe need to do to keep kids safe.
But also us as schoolemployees do what we need to do to
keep our police officers whoare responding safe.
We do not want to get in theway as they're coming into a building.
So we have differentstrategies that we do to make sure
that they're able to respondas quickly as possible.
(06:41):
Yeah, that's actually hugebecause, well, I won't get into the
weeds on that, but I couldvery easily see, for example, if
you have, God forbid, asuspect in the hallway armed, and
yet you've got a teacher who'swalking down a hallway who should
have been isolating, suddenlythe focus of the police officer changes.
(07:05):
Yes.
And I never want to put apolice officer in that situation.
But you know what?
School administrators and someof the technologies we do have in
a proactive response, makingsure that never happens.
Yeah, I think looking back, Iwant to take us back just a little
bit about.
You mentioned our focus was onweather and say, fire.
(07:28):
Fire drills, that sort of thing.
Columbine was really kind of aturning point for us and every other
school district.
Right.
That was in the early 2000s,is that right?
Yeah, I don't recall the exactdate, but yes, it was early in my
career.
So that totally changed the focus.
(07:48):
Yeah, it changed the mindsetof leaders of large campuses to,
you know, make sure you'redoing everything you can do to keep
your students and staff safe.
So since those days, what changes?
What significant improvementshave you seen through those years?
Technology being number one?
(08:09):
Okay.
The changes in technology thatwe have access to now, by far have
improved since I started 27years ago.
These technologies didn't evenexist then.
And now we have a lot ofdifferent technologies available
(08:29):
to keep all of our staff andstudents safe.
But the other biggie that I'veseen over recent years is staff and
student awareness.
Example, our tip line Vectoralert system.
We get tips daily, from minorthreats to major threats to things
(08:51):
seen on social media thatdefinitely help us as school administrators,
but definitely our campuspolice officers investigate any possible
threats.
And luckily, a high percent oftime those threats are non credible.
But, you know, I want ourstakeholders, our parents and friends
(09:13):
of students and students andstaff to know that every tip is thoroughly
investigated.
Yeah.
And when you do aninvestigation, it's twofold, Right.
It's kind of like a policeinvestigation, like you mentioned.
And then I would assume afterthe police investigation, investigation
is complete, than anadministrative investigation as well,
(09:35):
right?
Yes, definitely.
And our police department,under the leadership of Ron Storey
chief story.
They have great relationshipswith their school administrators.
It's a nice marriage of, hey,this is right now criminal investigation.
We're investigating it, but wewant to give you a heads up.
This is something that you'regoing to need to know about here
(09:58):
in a little while.
And they communicatethroughout the process to make sure
school administration is awareto do what they need to do in the
case of a school threat.
Yeah.
So if I can.
Let me back up just a notch.
The reason that you do thecriminal investigation first is because
(10:19):
that implies that there couldbe a life safety element involved,
right?
Not necessarily.
I mean that is a.
It could be, but we don't wantto impede a criminal investigation
that might have to go to court.
Sure.
And then you get into biggerissues like evidence tampering and
that sort of thing if you'renot careful.
Definitely.
So police own it if it's criminal.
(10:41):
And they, they invite us inwhen they have completed their part
of the investigation.
And what about the.
I remember not long ago we hadhad the, I think it was Appalachian
High School shooting that tookplace and shortly thereafter it seemed
like we received 10, dozens ofhoax calls, but we didn't know they
(11:06):
were hoaxes at first.
How did that all play out?
Every threat, every tip comesin and we investigate it thoroughly.
Our PD, whether it be Sundayat 7am, which we had during that
time a threat come into aschool, was investigated through
the day and our pd, whenneeded, they go right up to the gbi,
(11:31):
to the FBI and involve anyonewho needs to be involved to find
out what is going on.
At that point, schooladministration is also informed because
normally by then students aretalking because it is on social media.
Some of the tips that come inare from students who see stuff on
social media that doesn't seem right.
(11:54):
And again see something, saysomething that happens and our PD
is able to do their job andkeep everyone safe.
But to your point, yes, aftera unfortunate situation at Apalachee
High School, we did receivenumerous threats around our district.
None were credible, but everysingle one was investigated thoroughly
(12:18):
and handled thoroughly.
So you investigate it even ifit seems like, oh, this is just like
the other one.
That's not real, 100%.
You can't trust that.
Never, never.
We take every tip as if it'san active threat.
And until the PD rules thatout, we do what we need to do to
(12:41):
keep kids and staff safe.
Okay.
So one of the things I'veheard in probably social media and
maybe even the press is thatwe ought to be Doing X, Y and Z metal
detectors, for example, atevery door of every school.
And, you know, all of thesemeasures that at first blush, it's
(13:04):
like, well, okay, that kind ofmakes sense.
But then you dig into therealities of it and there's a problem
with it.
Like, it's almost like you'returning schools into a prison if
you go that far with it.
How do you determine.
How do you draw that linebetween a positive learning environment
(13:29):
and a vigilant endeavor toprevent issues that could threaten
the safety of staff or students?
Yeah.
Without getting into the weedson that, because our safety plan
is only seen by those who areworking the safety plan and in the
need to know for their part ofthe safety plan.
(13:52):
We do have strategies in placeto keep everyone safe throughout
a building or buildings on ourhigh school campuses.
But there are technologiesthat you will see.
You've talked about evolve.
And those are the.
And just for clarification forthe audience, those are the two posts
(14:16):
that you walk through.
At a high school football game.
Yeah.
At our stadium, you'll walkthrough it.
At our arena, you'll walkthrough it.
It's an AI weapon detectionsystem and a little different than
a metal detector.
But back to your point, youmay see those.
But we also have technologiesthat you won't see, and we have things
that you don't see that helpkeep students and staff safe.
(14:38):
And unfortunately, I knoweveryone wants to know a little bit
more about that, but we keepthat to those that need to know.
Our police officers and themonitoring groups that monitor what's
going on on our campuses.
Really close to the vet.
Yes, it has to be.
I always use this scenario.
If a varsity football coachgives the opposing team his game
(15:02):
plan on Monday for the gamecoming up this Friday, it's real
easy to beat that game plan.
So you don't see coachessharing game plans before the game,
and that's done.
So that they are the only onesthat know how they're going to move
forward with that game.
And we do the same with ourschool safety plan.
Those that need to know.
(15:23):
No, what we have.
And the police know what theyhave to do to keep everyone safe.
Okay, so last question for you.
And hopefully we've coveredsome things here that the audience
has newly learned.
That's the whole point.
And by the way, this may bethe one exception.
(15:45):
We call the podcast the inside scoop.
But you're not going to get aninside scoop on the technologies
and such.
But what have you seen asprobably the biggest factor in maintaining
a safe environment?
For the school district in our schools.
The biggest push that I haveis everyone has a place in helping
(16:09):
us keep schools safe.
What do you mean by that?
To see something, say something.
Letting your schooladministrators know, using the tip
line, letting your policeofficer at your school know, letting
your principal know if youhave a concern for safety.
Because once that is shared,we definitely look into it and see
(16:30):
how we could do better.
It's a constant looking atdata, looking at our situations that
come.
How do we get better?
I spend every day looking atevery situation to see what we can
do to keep everyone safe.
Every day.
And change with whateverchanges we need to make to keep people
(16:50):
safe.
You are no doubt a very busyman, folks.
As we have been preparing tostart the podcast, his phone rang
at least six times, I wouldsay over a span of maybe 10 minutes.
So all times day or night, too.
Right.
And that's testament to thework our principals are doing, our
(17:14):
assistant principals, and seesomething, say something.
And they're notifying me.
I notify PD or technology.
And it's not always whatparents might think of a major event.
Might be something very minor,but we get ahead of it.
And that line of communicationfrom the schools to district office
(17:37):
to PD to technology is critical.
And I work real hard to makesure that we don't have a breakdown
there and keeping everyonelooped in.
But.
But to your point, yes, when Iwas principal, you were real busy
at the time students were onyour campus.
This job is a little different.
(17:57):
I get busy in the afternoons,later in the evening, when kids are
playing around on social media.
And that's a big ask from us,is asking parents to be aware of
what your kids are doing ontheir phones, on their technology,
on their social media.
Because that's definitelychanged over the years, which gives
(18:17):
people a platform to do wrong.
Yeah, yeah.
And neither you nor I areattorneys, but I would imagine parents
might have an interest in theliability their kids are setting
up for them.
So maybe that's anotherpodcast we can have at some point
in the near future.
Josh, thank you so much forcoming in and sharing some of these
(18:38):
things.
And thank you for not sharingtoo much.
Well, thank you very much.
So safety, obviously, is abroad topic, from stop swapping teen
vaping to anti ganginitiatives and active shooter protocols.
You can find more details oneach major area on the Cobb Shield
page of our website.
That's cobbk12.org we'll dropthe links in the show notes and description
(19:03):
so that you won't have to huntaround for it.
And of course, informationabout the Vector tip line will be
there too.
Did you hear something youdidn't already know?
If so, like, subscribe Sharethis podcast with a friend.
Thanks for listening to thisedition of the Inside Scoop, a podcast
produced by the Cobb County School.
All things safety in Cobbschools is our topic this week on
the Inside Scoop.
Hello and welcome back to theInside scoop.
I'm David Owen.
Give us a Like, subscribe andshare this episode if you get something
out of our discussion here today.
The safety of our students isevery parent's concern.
(00:21):
We've done episodes onspecific aspects of safety before,
but never an overall look atthe full picture.
Here to give us the scoop onsafety is the assistant superintendent
of School Safety operations,Josh Morial.
Josh, welcome back to the podcast.
Good to see you again.
So you were here, I believe,talking about what can be said to
(00:43):
the public in times of crisisand what cannot be said.
First for the viewers, let'sgo a little bit into your past.
Tell us a little bit aboutJosh Morial.
So I've been in Cobb countyschools as an employee for 27 years.
I started here as a teacherback in the 1990s and moved up to
(01:04):
assistant principal and servedas an assistant principal, then became
a principal.
Two different levels herewithin the Cobb county school system.
Spent a lot of timespecifically at high school where
I was able to really learn andnavigate the operations of running
a high school.
And that was I've known you,I've been here for not quite 20 years,
(01:28):
but I've always known you as aprincipal of Osborne, I believe.
Yes, I was at osborne for over11 years.
Okay.
Yeah.
And that has come a long waysince the early.
You said in the 90s, right?
1990S.
So what is your, your currentrole now, specifically as it relates
(01:49):
to our police department herein Cobb schools?
A lot of people don't realizethat we have police department just
like Marietta has theirs andCobb county has theirs and Acworth
Austell, we have our own.
So tell us a little bit abouthow you relate to the Cobb Schools
police department.
Sure.
(02:10):
So again, I am a principal at heart.
That is my background.
I served as a principal for along time in this county.
I am not a post certifiedpolice officer.
So the two are not connected.
We are totally different, butwe have a strong partnership, a strong
relationship.
We work together daily.
(02:32):
And I am at policeheadquarters at least once a day
talking with the leadership inheadquarters on anything that might
be going on that I need tohelp administrators navigate.
So the police, they take thecriminal side.
Okay.
School administrators andmyself, we take the school policy
(02:57):
and whether it be discipline,communicating with parents or locking
a school down, we work in thatrelation to keeping school safe.
Where PD the police departmentis working on, they're coming in
and they're going toneutralize whatever the threat might
be, and we need to be out oftheir way.
(03:19):
Well, and that actually, thatbrings to mind the fact that there's
a line, Right, between astudent, say, misbehaving in a class
versus a student doingsomething potentially criminal.
Right.
Is that kind of what you'retalking about is helping the school
(03:40):
leadership, principal andassistant principals, understand
where that line is and alsomaking sure that the police department
is available should somethingcome up.
Is that kind of.
It does.
And, you know, anytime there'sa criminal investigation, the criminal
investigation is first theschool administrator investigating
(04:02):
and then looking at it.
Was there a policy infractionthat might need school discipline?
That follows.
We cannot impede a policeinvestigation as school administrators.
So part of my job is, yes,making sure that the PD is okay and
school administrators are notgetting ahead of themselves and possibly
ruining a police investigation.
(04:23):
But at the same time, if weever had a more serious threat, making
sure that administrators,teachers, are all trained on what
to do in a more serious situation.
Yeah, that's a heavy liftright there because you've got.
How many employees do we have somewhere?
We have around 19,000 employees.
I was going to guess somewherearound 20,000.
That's just incredible.
What did safety look like whenyou first came on board?
(04:46):
Yeah, so I've worked for fiveor six different superintendents,
and, you know, every few yearswe have a change in board members.
All of them, through my 27years in Cobb had a focus on safety,
but it was always a differentfocus on safety.
Recent years, oursuperintendent, Mr.
(05:06):
Ragsdale, has really had tomake that a priority for him.
And it's his number onepriority, he often says, is safety
of all the students and allthe staff in Cobb County.
27 years ago, our safety wasmore around weather, fire drills,
and making sure we're preparedto keep students safe in that aspect.
(05:30):
Now, the realm ofpossibilities of what we have to
prepare for is a lot greaterthan it was, let's say, 27 years
ago.
And our superintendent, ourboard, has made that a priority,
that we are prepared for everything.
And that's the work I do.
Yeah, you can't.
You can.
I presume you can never guessevery potential scenario to defend
(05:54):
against, but the ones that youcan isolate and figure out, being
as prepared as possible forthat is key, right?
Yeah.
I've always had the mindset ofprior planning prevents poor performance.
So with that said constantplanning, we could adjust a plan
to meet whatever comes at us.
And that could be from weatherto active student situation that
(06:20):
we need to tend to and do whatwe need to do to keep kids safe.
But also us as schoolemployees do what we need to do to
keep our police officers whoare responding safe.
We do not want to get in theway as they're coming into a building.
So we have differentstrategies that we do to make sure
that they're able to respondas quickly as possible.
(06:41):
Yeah, that's actually hugebecause, well, I won't get into the
weeds on that, but I couldvery easily see, for example, if
you have, God forbid, asuspect in the hallway armed, and
yet you've got a teacher who'swalking down a hallway who should
have been isolating, suddenlythe focus of the police officer changes.
(07:05):
Yes.
And I never want to put apolice officer in that situation.
But you know what?
School administrators and someof the technologies we do have in
a proactive response, makingsure that never happens.
Yeah, I think looking back, Iwant to take us back just a little
bit about.
You mentioned our focus was onweather and say, fire.
(07:28):
Fire drills, that sort of thing.
Columbine was really kind of aturning point for us and every other
school district.
Right.
That was in the early 2000s,is that right?
Yeah, I don't recall the exactdate, but yes, it was early in my
career.
So that totally changed the focus.
(07:48):
Yeah, it changed the mindsetof leaders of large campuses to,
you know, make sure you'redoing everything you can do to keep
your students and staff safe.
So since those days, what changes?
What significant improvementshave you seen through those years?
Technology being number one?
(08:09):
Okay.
The changes in technology thatwe have access to now, by far have
improved since I started 27years ago.
These technologies didn't evenexist then.
And now we have a lot ofdifferent technologies available
(08:29):
to keep all of our staff andstudents safe.
But the other biggie that I'veseen over recent years is staff and
student awareness.
Example, our tip line Vectoralert system.
We get tips daily, from minorthreats to major threats to things
(08:51):
seen on social media thatdefinitely help us as school administrators,
but definitely our campuspolice officers investigate any possible
threats.
And luckily, a high percent oftime those threats are non credible.
But, you know, I want ourstakeholders, our parents and friends
(09:13):
of students and students andstaff to know that every tip is thoroughly
investigated.
Yeah.
And when you do aninvestigation, it's twofold, Right.
It's kind of like a policeinvestigation, like you mentioned.
And then I would assume afterthe police investigation, investigation
is complete, than anadministrative investigation as well,
(09:35):
right?
Yes, definitely.
And our police department,under the leadership of Ron Storey
chief story.
They have great relationshipswith their school administrators.
It's a nice marriage of, hey,this is right now criminal investigation.
We're investigating it, but wewant to give you a heads up.
This is something that you'regoing to need to know about here
(09:58):
in a little while.
And they communicatethroughout the process to make sure
school administration is awareto do what they need to do in the
case of a school threat.
Yeah.
So if I can.
Let me back up just a notch.
The reason that you do thecriminal investigation first is because
(10:19):
that implies that there couldbe a life safety element involved,
right?
Not necessarily.
I mean that is a.
It could be, but we don't wantto impede a criminal investigation
that might have to go to court.
Sure.
And then you get into biggerissues like evidence tampering and
that sort of thing if you'renot careful.
Definitely.
So police own it if it's criminal.
(10:41):
And they, they invite us inwhen they have completed their part
of the investigation.
And what about the.
I remember not long ago we hadhad the, I think it was Appalachian
High School shooting that tookplace and shortly thereafter it seemed
like we received 10, dozens ofhoax calls, but we didn't know they
(11:06):
were hoaxes at first.
How did that all play out?
Every threat, every tip comesin and we investigate it thoroughly.
Our PD, whether it be Sundayat 7am, which we had during that
time a threat come into aschool, was investigated through
the day and our pd, whenneeded, they go right up to the gbi,
(11:31):
to the FBI and involve anyonewho needs to be involved to find
out what is going on.
At that point, schooladministration is also informed because
normally by then students aretalking because it is on social media.
Some of the tips that come inare from students who see stuff on
social media that doesn't seem right.
(11:54):
And again see something, saysomething that happens and our PD
is able to do their job andkeep everyone safe.
But to your point, yes, aftera unfortunate situation at Apalachee
High School, we did receivenumerous threats around our district.
None were credible, but everysingle one was investigated thoroughly
(12:18):
and handled thoroughly.
So you investigate it even ifit seems like, oh, this is just like
the other one.
That's not real, 100%.
You can't trust that.
Never, never.
We take every tip as if it'san active threat.
And until the PD rules thatout, we do what we need to do to
(12:41):
keep kids and staff safe.
Okay.
So one of the things I'veheard in probably social media and
maybe even the press is thatwe ought to be Doing X, Y and Z metal
detectors, for example, atevery door of every school.
And, you know, all of thesemeasures that at first blush, it's
(13:04):
like, well, okay, that kind ofmakes sense.
But then you dig into therealities of it and there's a problem
with it.
Like, it's almost like you'returning schools into a prison if
you go that far with it.
How do you determine.
How do you draw that linebetween a positive learning environment
(13:29):
and a vigilant endeavor toprevent issues that could threaten
the safety of staff or students?
Yeah.
Without getting into the weedson that, because our safety plan
is only seen by those who areworking the safety plan and in the
need to know for their part ofthe safety plan.
(13:52):
We do have strategies in placeto keep everyone safe throughout
a building or buildings on ourhigh school campuses.
But there are technologiesthat you will see.
You've talked about evolve.
And those are the.
And just for clarification forthe audience, those are the two posts
(14:16):
that you walk through.
At a high school football game.
Yeah.
At our stadium, you'll walkthrough it.
At our arena, you'll walkthrough it.
It's an AI weapon detectionsystem and a little different than
a metal detector.
But back to your point, youmay see those.
But we also have technologiesthat you won't see, and we have things
that you don't see that helpkeep students and staff safe.
(14:38):
And unfortunately, I knoweveryone wants to know a little bit
more about that, but we keepthat to those that need to know.
Our police officers and themonitoring groups that monitor what's
going on on our campuses.
Really close to the vet.
Yes, it has to be.
I always use this scenario.
If a varsity football coachgives the opposing team his game
(15:02):
plan on Monday for the gamecoming up this Friday, it's real
easy to beat that game plan.
So you don't see coachessharing game plans before the game,
and that's done.
So that they are the only onesthat know how they're going to move
forward with that game.
And we do the same with ourschool safety plan.
Those that need to know.
(15:23):
No, what we have.
And the police know what theyhave to do to keep everyone safe.
Okay, so last question for you.
And hopefully we've coveredsome things here that the audience
has newly learned.
That's the whole point.
And by the way, this may bethe one exception.
(15:45):
We call the podcast the inside scoop.
But you're not going to get aninside scoop on the technologies
and such.
But what have you seen asprobably the biggest factor in maintaining
a safe environment?
For the school district in our schools.
The biggest push that I haveis everyone has a place in helping
(16:09):
us keep schools safe.
What do you mean by that?
To see something, say something.
Letting your schooladministrators know, using the tip
line, letting your policeofficer at your school know, letting
your principal know if youhave a concern for safety.
Because once that is shared,we definitely look into it and see
(16:30):
how we could do better.
It's a constant looking atdata, looking at our situations that
come.
How do we get better?
I spend every day looking atevery situation to see what we can
do to keep everyone safe.
Every day.
And change with whateverchanges we need to make to keep people
(16:50):
safe.
You are no doubt a very busyman, folks.
As we have been preparing tostart the podcast, his phone rang
at least six times, I wouldsay over a span of maybe 10 minutes.
So all times day or night, too.
Right.
And that's testament to thework our principals are doing, our
(17:14):
assistant principals, and seesomething, say something.
And they're notifying me.
I notify PD or technology.
And it's not always whatparents might think of a major event.
Might be something very minor,but we get ahead of it.
And that line of communicationfrom the schools to district office
(17:37):
to PD to technology is critical.
And I work real hard to makesure that we don't have a breakdown
there and keeping everyonelooped in.
But.
But to your point, yes, when Iwas principal, you were real busy
at the time students were onyour campus.
This job is a little different.
(17:57):
I get busy in the afternoons,later in the evening, when kids are
playing around on social media.
And that's a big ask from us,is asking parents to be aware of
what your kids are doing ontheir phones, on their technology,
on their social media.
Because that's definitelychanged over the years, which gives
(18:17):
people a platform to do wrong.
Yeah, yeah.
And neither you nor I areattorneys, but I would imagine parents
might have an interest in theliability their kids are setting
up for them.
So maybe that's anotherpodcast we can have at some point
in the near future.
Josh, thank you so much forcoming in and sharing some of these
(18:38):
things.
And thank you for not sharingtoo much.
Well, thank you very much.
So safety, obviously, is abroad topic, from stop swapping teen
vaping to anti ganginitiatives and active shooter protocols.
You can find more details oneach major area on the Cobb Shield
page of our website.
That's cobbk12.org we'll dropthe links in the show notes and description
(19:03):
so that you won't have to huntaround for it.
And of course, informationabout the Vector tip line will be
there too.
Did you hear something youdidn't already know?
If so, like, subscribe Sharethis podcast with a friend.
Thanks for listening to thisedition of the Inside Scoop, a podcast
produced by the Cobb County School.
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