Page 80 - Security Today, October 2019

unsung security
“We’ve got the best of both Aworlds is what we have.”
s the new school year approaches, the Banks County, Ga. Board of Edu- cation and Banks County Sheriff ’s Office are banking
on a unique HERO Unit to add an unseen layer of security in the county’s schools.
The Heightened Enforcement Response Officer (HERO) Unit consists of specially trained and experienced deputies who receive specialized tailored HERO training.
“The HERO Unit provides the school sys- tem with an instantaneous response by a heavily-armed, highly-trained, proactive protection detail,” said Sheriff Carlton Speed. “Most deputies assigned are longtime law enforcement veterans with a former SWAT or military background. The need for the HERO Unit became an increasingly apparent reality due to the frequency of nationwide school shootings. As with many area schools, our school system, along with the sheriff’s office, has investigated several unsubstanti- ated threats against our school system after the 2018 Parkland High School incident.”
Getting Started
When asked how the unit got its start, Speed explained it was in response to concerns about how the sheriff’s office could quickly and efficiently address active threats in the county’s schools to minimize their impact.
“We actually sat down as a group, the sheriff’s office to start with, and we tried to come up with something outside the box in case we did have a situation where we did have an active shooter in Banks County,” Speed said. “We looked at everything around us in the region. We even had folks looking nationwide to see what people were putting together to respond and see what kind of situation they were putting their folks into, how they were going to respond, what they were going to do. We were looking for an answer, because at that time we felt like it
By Rob Moore
HERO Unit Provides School Security
Nationwide school shootings prompt formation of safety team
wasn’t working basically.” transpire,” Speed said.
After looking at what was going on in the Speed and other officials are very quick to
state, the region and the nation, Speed said say that most details of the program are con- he and Chief Deputy Shawn Wilson realized fidential to protect its integrity and effective- they couldn’t find something suited to Banks ness. That’s why specifics are guarded and County’s needs. known only to those involved in the HERO
8 campuslifesecurity.com | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019
“That’s when Chief Wilson and myself sat down and talked about it at length and with his military background, we sat down and talked about coming up with a solution to where we had somebody on premises at the school system that if we did have an active shooter come into the school, we could respond with an efficiency to stop that per- son in the fastest, most efficient manner with keeping any devastation to a mini- mum,” Speed said. “At that point, he sat down and talked to one of his good friends, SWAT instructor Lt. Mark Gerrells in Rabun County, GA.”
After brainstorming for a couple of weeks, Wilson and Gerrells presented their concept to Speed.
“We looked at it,” Speed said. “We went back to the drawing table a couple of differ- ent times. We refined it. Then, when we had something we thought we could work with, we brought it down to the school system.”
Telling the Board
When presenting it to the Banks County Board of Education, Speeds said he told the board, “We think it’s outside the box, but we think it will work. Once we get this into place and go down this path, we think it’s the best thing out there.”
Speed commends Dr. Ann Hopkins, superintendent, and Dr. Hank Ramey, assis- tant superintendent, for working with sher- iff’s office leadership to bring the program into being.
“We’ve been fortunate in the fact that all the administrators, Dr. Hopkins and the pre- vious superintendent as well, were very interested in seeing how this thing would
Program and vested leadership.
“We have somebody in place in the system
at locations within the school system that can respond at a moment’s notice,” Speed said. “They also have the ability to monitor the school system as a whole, not only from one location but from multiple locations.”
Working Behind the Scenes
But visitors to the schools should not expect to see members of the specialized unit or even observe evidence of its existence.
“The HERO program is designed to work behind the scenes, much like the personal facility detail assigned to the White House,” Wilson said.
Hopkins said the program is worth any cost, as it increases the safety for the students and allows them to effectively teach.
“It’s worth any cost, because they know what they’re doing,” Hopkins said. “We pray, just like everybody else, that it never comes to our door. You hope at the end of it you can say we paid for that, but that’s ok because that’s exactly what we’re willing to do. We can’t teach our kids if they’re not safe, and they have to feel safe.”
Speed Agrees
Speed emphasized that it’s a partnership between law enforcement and educators.
Speed said the Banks County Board of Education pays 100 percent of the salary of each assigned HERO and SRO, while the sheriff ’s office provides the training and equipment.
“While we think we’re the experts in edu- cation, we’ve got to listen to what the experts in safety tell us,” Hopkins said.