BARROW COUNTY, Ga. — Starting next month, Barrow County students can expect to show photo identification to enter middle and high schools district-wide.
Staff alerted the Board of Education to the security upgrade decision Tuesday night. The plan is to print decals that include a student’s picture, name, grade and school and stick them to their laptops.
“We think we can do it ourselves,” Dr. James Bowen said.
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Bowen is Assistant Superintendent of Support Services. He explained students must hand their laptops over to staff to pass through weapon detectors. That’s when staff can check their IDs and determine they belong inside the building.
“You have an opportunity there to confirm who they are, if there’s any question obviously, and our scanning team can get to know students even better than they did before which is also a great safety tool for us as well,” Bowen said.
Families have been pushing for security upgrades since the deadly Apalachee High School shooting in Sept. 2024. Two students and two teachers died, eight others were hurt.
Four months later, deputies said another student pulled a gun out on the AHS campus. No one was hurt in that case.
The Board of Education called an emergency meeting the following day and approved the installation of weapon detectors in county middle and high schools.
The decision to begin using student IDs comes less than two weeks after Barrow County Sheriff’s Office arrested a student from another district who trespassed onto Apalachee High School’s campus.
Investigators said the teenager went unnoticed inside the school until around noon that day.
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