Dear PCSD Community,
The school district strives to communicate with you about issues that impact our schools, especially issues related to student safety. In light of the tragic events in Barrow County on Wednesday, it is understandable that there is heightened concern for student safety in our community and in school communities across our state. Already, there are concerns about potential threats and rumors that have been posted online in multiple communities across our state. We are aware of general posts on Snapchat and Instagram that feature images of anonymous individuals with weapons and/or lists of allegedly “targeted” schools. We want you to know that we take potential threats extremely seriously, and our school Safety and Security Department and the Paulding Sheriff’s Office immediately investigate any such posts that have relevance to our schools. Since this is an issue that is occurring statewide, we also work collaboratively with state agencies to identify potential concerns. At this time, there are no substantiated threats to any Paulding County school, and the non-specific posts seen on social media appear intended to create fear and confusion in a time of heightened concern.
As an example, this morning a message circulated on social media with an alphabetical list of schools from a neighboring county and text suggesting it was a list of schools supposedly “targeted on Friday.” We have no reason to believe this message is a legitimate threat or that it has any relation to Paulding County, but we have reported it to our district Safety and Security Department and appropriate local and state authorities to be investigated.
We encourage students and parents to not circulate unsubstantiated messages of this nature on social media, but to instead report anything that may interpreted as a safety threat to the Vector Alert System, a teacher or administrator, or the Paulding County Sheriff's Office. We also want to remind students that making a threat to student and staff safety, whether verbal or online, in school or out of school – regardless of intent – will result in extremely serious consequences from both law enforcement and according to school district policy.
Our School Resource Deputies, School Safety Officers, and School Safety Coordinators work with students in our schools daily to ensure a safe learning environment, and our school district works closely with the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office on all matters of safety that affect our schools. Reporting this type of information directly to authorities will ensure the matter is addressed immediately and with the best available resources.
Thank you for your support as we work together to keep our schools the safest possible learning environments for our students, staff and community.
