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GA May Enact Info Sharing On Students To Prevent Shootings

Crime and Justice News

After four people were shot and killed at Georgia's Apalachee High School in September, many people believe officials failed to see warning signs that the 14-year-old accused of the shooting was displaying. That conclusion could drive Georgia lawmakers, who convene for their annual legislative session Monday under intense pressure to show they are acting to prevent future shootings, to order agencies to broadly share education, child welfare and juvenile court records, the Associated Press reports. The hope would be that such data will help officials better assess threats that students will hurt themselves or others. State House Speaker Jon Burns and state schools Superintendent Richard Woods, both elected Republicans, are among those backing more information sharing. “How do we share that with our sister agencies so we can have a red flag system, that for kids or situations that we need to know about, that needs to be looked at?” Woods asked at a forum on school safety.


Privacy advocates warn that such a data repository could be invasive, and point to findings by federal law enforcement agencies that it’s impossible to use such records to profile students likely to commit violence. Amelia Vance of the Public Interest Privacy Center says prevention has to be based on what students are actually doing, like making threats or taking action to acquire a weapon. “You will overwhelmingly get false flags if you seek to profile students,” Vance said. “And those false flags will often be based on discriminatory information -- students with disabilities. students who have disproportionate or any interactions with social services.” In addition to information sharing, there are calls in Georgia for more money for police officers in schools, more money for school counselors, social workers and mental health counseling, and for mobile panic buttons and technology to detect guns. Georgia Democrats are pushing efforts to limit children's access to guns, but Republicans refuse to limit gun rights.

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