Putnam Schools Focused on Safety for New Year

The Putnam County School System is emphasizing safety during the new school year to prevent major tragedies from occurring.

Deputy Director of Schools Corby King said prevention and recognizing potential warning signs is crucial.

“We encourage students and parents, if something’s going on, they see something out of the ordinary, or students that are talking about things that aren’t appropriate,” King said, “please tell an administrator, tell a school official. Tell a teacher, a counselor, tell someone if you see something that’s out of place.”

King said additional training was given to teachers and school administrators in order to help struggling and at-risk students during the school year.

“Our school district is providing a lot of those services,” King said. “We’ve trained many administrators to recognize the adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and get services to students who are experiences those, and how to handle and address behaviors and social-emotional needs with a high ACE score.”

One aspect King said will help boost school security this year is the addition of six new school resource officers provided by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. The SROs were approved during the July Putnam County Commission meeting.

“These are trained, certified police officers and will give us a presence in all of our buildings,” King said. “That police presence makes a huge difference in the safety of our students and our families, providing a sense of calm, and I think that’s the biggest asset we have moving forward.”

In 2018, the two deadliest mass shootings in the United States occurred at schools, including 10 killed at Santa Fe High School in Texas, and 17 at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.