In this letter to the community, Superintendent Phyllis Edwards announces new safety measures being taken at Decatur schools.

Dear Parents and Community Members:

On October 11th we opened a lovely new school facility at Decatur High School. Hopefully you were able to attend the open house and see the new building. What it will offer our students is nothing short of incredible.

With the addition of a new facility comes some increased monitoring and supervision.

We have already experienced some thefts this year of equipment at DHS. We are making or have made the following changes:

• *New cameras and security system provided by Iron Sky;
• *Change of locks and entry procedures;
• *Requirement of all staff to be out of the building at a reasonable hour;
• *Review of our procedures with the city police and the alarm company;
• *A meeting with the police and assessment of the facility.

Shortly, I will announce a meeting for parents about safety. The police will be our speakers and trainers. Even though we are a small system, we are not immune from danger and illegal behavior.

I believe we are taking the appropriate steps to make our schools as safe as possible, but it is important that we all stay informed and work together.

Students who engage in behavior which is illegal will be prosecuted to the fullest extent. Doors need to remain locked and staff vigilant. We do not want an environment filled with armed officers and metal detectors, but need to understand we all pay the price when we are lenient in matters concerning student safety.

Sincerely,

Dr. Phyllis A. Edwards

Superintendent of School

The AJC recently used a February “incident” where a student brought a gun to Renfroe Middle School as a jumping off point to talk about promoting “safer schools” around Atlanta.

A little chart included with the story detailing gun felonies for school systems showed three weapon felonies in the Decatur school system in 2007. Well, after I got passed the fact that Gwinnett had a higher gun felony total than DeKalb (and yes, I am aware that Gwinnett is a larger school system, but its still surprising) I wanted to know more about these 3 incidents in Decatur.

Well, the AJC didn’t specify where the data came from, so I turned to old reliable Google. Within a few clicks I found the site. From there I clicked on “Decatur City” and found this.

So as you can see above, those three cited felony weapons charges was the total extent of the crime reported in CDS in ALL of 2007. And looking back to 2006 there were NO incidents reported. Looks pretty good to me.

But then I noticed a breakdown link. And it showed this.

Uh…of the three felony weapons charges filed in 2007 within CDS, two were at the elementary school level!?

I was surprised and thought you might be too.

Any parents out there with details on these “incidents”?