News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Pickett County School System wants a Homeland Security Agent with Pickett County as the agent’s sole focus.
Director of Schools Diane Elder said Governor Bill Lee’s 2021 Safety Initiative specified that each county would be appointed its own agent. Elder said, thus far, that has not been the case in Pickett County.
“His role will be to help us with safety measures,” Elder said. “If he sees something that he feels like, ‘Hey maybe we need to take a look at this and see if we could do something better,’ just like putting the security screen on the windows,” Elder said.
The county has begun the process of putting security screens over school windows and implementing keyless entries to all exterior doors at county schools. Agent Steven Elrod suggested the changes. He currently works with Pickett County and three other school systems.
Elder said Elrod is a former SRO in Putnam County. Elder said she hopes to have Pickett County assigned its own agent in January.
“Unfortunately, Putnam County said he couldn’t go anywhere but Putnam County after all of them were placed, so they snatched him up pretty quick, I think,” Elder said.
With Elrod’s influence, the county has begun the process of putting security screens over school windows and implementing keyless entries to all exterior doors at county schools. Elder said she hopes that in future semesters in her school district, a Homeland Security representative will be present all the time to walk the halls of the school and look for ways to maximize the safety of students and faculty.
“We’ve talked about, in front of the gym, putting posts to keep someone from driving in through those big windows in the gym,” Elder said. “Just different things like that. To walk our schools, to make sure all of our doors are closed.”
The state spent some $230 million to improve school safety in 2021 with $30 million of that going toward implementing the Homeland Security Agents. Elder said she appreciated Elrod’s help, but student safety is the county’s highest priority and will require an agent’s full focus in the future.
