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Residents, students press Barrow County board to strengthen conduct rules and mental-health supports
Summary
Three public speakers at a Barrow County Board of Education meeting urged the board to raise penalties for weapons, threats and arson; asked for hallway monitoring and clearer, sustained mental-health services; and criticized how plans for Jay Hall were discussed with student recovery teams.
At a public-comment period during a Barrow County Board of Education meeting, three speakers urged the board to strengthen the student code of conduct, expand mental-health support and add school safety measures following the Sept. 4 tragedy at Apalachee High School.
Resident Dina Valadares asked the board to “consider increasing the consequences outlined in the student handbook to a maximum degree classified as a 5” for three specific actions: bringing any weapon to school, making terroristic threats against school or staff, and committing arson. Valadares said those consequences should apply at elementary through high school levels and asked the board to consider hallway monitors after describing an incident at an elementary school where a child left campus and was not immediately located.
Leila Renee Contreras, co‑founder of the community group Change for Chi and an Apalachee alumna, said the recovery work must go beyond “moments of support” and called for “sustained investment” in mental‑health services for students and staff. She thanked educators and counselors for their efforts, urged community participation in the ongoing code‑of‑conduct review, and said community gatherings to bring students, families and educators together would help with healing.
Apalachee junior Sasha Contreras said she supports the student decals and other steps to detect non‑enrolled people on campus. She also criticized how discussions about the future use of Jay Hall were handled in a student recovery meeting, saying ideas such as a weight room or pool were raised “without the correct tone and sensibility” and that families of those affected should be consulted first.
Board staff had earlier told the meeting that the district’s code of conduct is posted for public input on the district eBoard site and that Apalachee High School now has a recovery coordinator, Kelsey Zimmer, whose introductory video is on the district website. Public commenters repeatedly asked that the review process and any changes be transparent and sustained rather than symbolic.
The board did not take action on the requests during the meeting; public‑comment rules posted by the district state the board generally will not respond during the meeting and will take comments under consideration.
