Wednesday, September 11, 2024–10:11 a.m.

-David Crowder, WRGA News-

The issue of school security was at the forefront during Tuesday’s Rome City School Board meeting.

Following a shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, authorities have been busy investigating threats locally.

Rome Police Chief Denise Downer McKinney spoke during Tuesday’s school board meeting and stressed that making threats is not a joke.

“We’ve got to let our children know that they [threats] are not a joke and that we have no tolerance for anyone threatening to harm our students, faculty, or staff,” she said. “When we hear of something, we put extra patrol officers on the campus. They come in and out of the school, and they patrol the campus. We keep abreast through intel through the federal government with Homeland Security and the FBI. The superintendent and I keep in constant contact and collaborate.”

A 17-year-old Rome High student was arrested last Friday for allegedly making a threat. Downer-McKinney addressed concerns from some parents regarding the timeline leading up to a lockdown at the school that same day, which was in response to a lockdown in Cartersville.

“I called him [the superintendent] when we heard about Cartersville having a lockdown,” she said. “I asked if he heard about Cartersville, and at that point, he had not. That’s the point when the lockdown at Rome happened. The 17-year-old who was arrested, the incident happened on a Thursday. He wasn’t at school on Friday and we arrested him on Friday. So, that was prior to anything about Cartersville later on that afternoon.”

Downer-McKinney also announced that the Rome High/Rome Middle School campus is getting an additional school resource officer.

“I have known for many years that we need more than one resource officer at the high school,” she said. I have walked these halls many times but with a lack of manpower I could not provide an additional SRO, but we have hired some other officers, and effective this Monday, we have an additional SRO at Rome High School, who is also going to help at the middle school.”

In addition to the Rome High student, a Rome Middle School student was also arrested in connection with an alleged threat.

Two from Coosa High, two from Pepperell, and one from Model have also been arrested.

The latest arrest, a Pepperell High student, occurred on Tuesday.