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Apalachee students, teachers and parents press Barrow board for immediate safety changes and more mental‑health leave
Summary
Multiple students, a teacher and parents urged the Barrow County Board of Education to adopt locked‑door rules, clear‑bag policies, AI weapons detectors, and greater mental‑health leave after the Sept. 4 school shooting at Apalachee High School.
Several students, a teacher and parents urged the Barrow County Board of Education on Jan. 7 to take immediate, visible steps to improve school safety at Apalachee High School and across the district following the Sept. 4 shooting that killed four people.
Erin Dunlap, a science teacher at Apalachee, described hiding with her class in a storage closet for half an hour on Sept. 4 and said staff have not received adequate time or flexible leave for mental‑health care. “The faculty and staff of Apalachee need help with our mental health. We are not okay,” Dunlap said. She asked the board to grant teachers five additional days of leave outside regular sick leave to use for therapy or recovery, saying the district’s current 90‑minute per‑week option must be taken during planning periods and is unusable for staff who travel for care.
Students who were in classrooms during the shooting gave firsthand accounts of fear and ongoing…
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