Oconee County Schools Statement on School Safety and Parent Resource

Oconee County Schools released the following statement Monday regarding school safety and parent resource:

Parents,

The terrible tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, serves as a reminder to our entire community about the importance of school safety.  Emergency response plans, which are reviewed annually by GEMA/Homeland Security, are in place at each of our Oconee County schools.  Each school regularly practices emergency response drills, and we continually evaluate our safety and security procedures.  Our school counselors and other administrators will be available for students throughout the week if they have questions.  The Oconee County Sheriff's Department will also have an increased visibility during morning arrival over the next few days. A good parent resource that can assist with conversations about school shootings is located at http://www.parents.com...">kids/ .

Please continue to keep the Newtown community in your thoughts and prayers.

Also on Monday, the Sheriff's Office released the following statement about its partnerships with schools, both public and private:

The Sheriff's Office is working in conjunction with the Oconee County School System and the private schools within the county concerning school security issues. All security plans and their implementation are a partnership between the Sheriff's Office and the schools and are jointly developed.

This is not new or simply in response to the recent events in Connecticut. This has been the process in the past and it will continue in the future.

Please understand that while we prefer transparency, obviously we cannot release specific details of the plans.

Do you have concerns about school safety? What do you think is the best way for schools to prevent tragedies like that which occurred in Newtown last week?