This week's episode of The Inside Scoop dives deep into the crucial topic of safety in Cobb County schools. Former principal and now Assistant Superintendent of School Safety Operations, Josh Morreale, shares his extensive experience and insights into the evolving landscape of school safety over his 27-year career. He discusses the critical partnership between school administrators and the Cobb Schools police department, emphasizing the importance of communication and collaboration in maintaining a secure environment for students and staff. Morreale highlights the significant advancements in technology and awareness that have transformed safety protocols since the early 2000s, particularly after pivotal events that shaped school safety policies. Listeners will gain valuable understanding of the proactive measures in place and the community's role in ensuring a safe educational atmosphere.

Guest: Josh Morreale, Assistant Superintendent of School Safety Operations

Click on a timecode to jump to the topic:

Chapters:

• [00:00] - Introduction to Safety in Cobb Schools
• [00:21] - Understanding School Safety Operations
• [07:30] - The Evolution of School Safety
• [11:10] - Investigating Threats in Schools
• [15:40] - Maintaining School Safety: Roles and Strategies
• [18:42] - Safety Initiatives in Education

(If the timecode links above don't work in your podcast player, visit "Podcast Home" below.)

Useful links from the podcast:

• Cobb Shield - This page contains info about Vector Alert, a resource for reporting safety concerns.
• Cobb Schools Police Department

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The Cobb County School District

Takeaways:

• The safety of students is a top priority that requires constant planning and collaboration.
• Cobb schools have evolved their safety strategies significantly since the early 1990s, focusing on various threats.
• Every safety tip received is thoroughly investigated to ensure the protection of students and staff.
• A strong partnership exists between school administrators and the police department for effective safety operations.
• Technological advancements have greatly improved the capabilities for maintaining school safety since 27 years ago.
• The 'See Something, Say Something' initiative empowers everyone to contribute to school safety efforts.

Host: 00:00:00

All things safety in Cobb schools is our topic this week on the Inside Scoop.

Host: 00:00:08

Hello and welcome back to the Inside scoop.

Host: 00:00:10

I'm David Owen.

Host: 00:00:12

Give us a Like, subscribe and share this episode if you get something out of our discussion here today.

Host: 00:00:17

The safety of our students is every parent's concern.

Host: 00:00:21

We've done episodes on specific aspects of safety before, but never an overall look at the full picture.

Host: 00:00:28

Here to give us the scoop on safety is the assistant superintendent of School Safety operations, Josh Morial.

Host: 00:00:35

Josh, welcome back to the podcast.

Josh Morial: 00:00:37

Good to see you again.

Host: 00:00:38

So you were here, I believe, talking about what can be said to the public in times of crisis and what cannot be said.

Host: 00:00:47

First for the viewers, let's go a little bit into your past.

Host: 00:00:51

Tell us a little bit about Josh Morial.

Josh Morial: 00:00:54

So I've been in Cobb county schools as an employee for 27 years.

Josh Morial: 00:00:58

here as a teacher back in the: 1990

Josh Morial: 00:01:09

Two different levels here within the Cobb county school system.

Josh Morial: 00:01:12

Spent a lot of time specifically at high school where I was able to really learn and navigate the operations of running a high school.

Host: 00:01:23

And that was I've known you, I've been here for not quite 20 years, but I've always known you as a principal of Osborne, I believe.

Josh Morial: 00:01:33

Yes, I was at osborne for over 11 years.

Host: 00:01:35

Okay.

Host: 00:01:36

Yeah.

Host: 00:01:36

And that has come a long way since the early.

Host: 00:01:39

You said in the 90s, right?

Josh Morial: 00:01:40

1990S.

Host: 00:01:42

So what is your, your current role now, specifically as it relates to our police department here in Cobb schools?

Host: 00:01:52

A lot of people don't realize that we have police department just like Marietta has theirs and Cobb county has theirs and Acworth Austell, we have our own.

Host: 00:02:03

So tell us a little bit about how you relate to the Cobb Schools police department.

Josh Morial: 00:02:09

Sure.

Josh Morial: 00:02:10

So again, I am a principal at heart.

Josh Morial: 00:02:13

That is my background.

Josh Morial: 00:02:15

I served as a principal for a long time in this county.

Josh Morial: 00:02:19

I am not a post certified police officer.

Josh Morial: 00:02:22

So the two are not connected.

Josh Morial: 00:02:24

We are totally different, but we have a strong partnership, a strong relationship.

Josh Morial: 00:02:29

We work together daily.

Josh Morial: 00:02:32

And I am at police headquarters at least once a day talking with the leadership in headquarters on anything that might be going on that I need to help administrators navigate.

Josh Morial: 00:02:47

So the police, they take the criminal side.

Host: 00:02:50

Okay.

Josh Morial: 00:02:51

School administrators and myself, we take the school policy and whether it be discipline, communicating with parents or locking a school down, we work in that relation to keeping school safe.

Josh Morial: 00:03:10

Where PD the police department is working on, they're coming in and they're going to neutralize whatever the threat might be, and we need to be out of their way.

Host: 00:03:19

Well, and that actually, that brings to mind the fact that there's a line, Right, between a student, say, misbehaving in a class versus a student doing something potentially criminal.

Host: 00:03:35

Right.

Host: 00:03:37

Is that kind of what you're talking about is helping the school leadership, principal and assistant principals, understand where that line is and also making sure that the police department is available should something come up.

Host: 00:03:50

Is that kind of.

Josh Morial: 00:03:52

It does.

Josh Morial: 00:03:53

And, you know, anytime there's a criminal investigation, the criminal investigation is first the school administrator investigating and then looking at it.

Josh Morial: 00:04:03

Was there a policy infraction that might need school discipline?

Josh Morial: 00:04:07

That follows.

Josh Morial: 00:04:08

We cannot impede a police investigation as school administrators.

Josh Morial: 00:04:12

So part of my job is, yes, making sure that the PD is okay and school administrators are not getting ahead of themselves and possibly ruining a police investigation.

Josh Morial: 00:04:23

But at the same time, if we ever had a more serious threat, making sure that administrators, teachers, are all trained on what to do in a more serious situation.

Host: 00:04:34

Yeah, that's a heavy lift right there because you've got.

Host: 00:04:36

How many employees do we have somewhere?

Josh Morial: 00:04:38

We have around 19,000 employees.

Host: 00:04:40

I was going to guess somewhere around 20,000.

Host: 00:04:42

That's just incredible.

Host: 00:04:43

What did safety look like when you first came on board?

Josh Morial: 00:04:46

Yeah, so I've worked for five or six different superintendents, and, you know, every few years we have a change in board members.

Josh Morial: 00:04:54

All of them, through my 27 years in Cobb had a focus on safety, but it was always a different focus on safety.

Josh Morial: 00:05:03

Recent years, our superintendent, Mr.

Josh Morial: 00:05:06

Ragsdale, has really had to make that a priority for him.

Josh Morial: 00:05:11

And it's his number one priority, he often says, is safety of all the students and all the staff in Cobb County.

Josh Morial: 00:05:18

27 years ago, our safety was more around weather, fire drills, and making sure we're prepared to keep students safe in that aspect.

Josh Morial: 00:05:30

Now, the realm of possibilities of what we have to prepare for is a lot greater than it was, let's say, 27 years ago.

Josh Morial: 00:05:40

And our superintendent, our board, has made that a priority, that we are prepared for everything.

Josh Morial: 00:05:45

And that's the work I do.

Host: 00:05:48

Yeah, you can't.

Host: 00:05:49

You can.

Host: 00:05:49

I presume you can never guess every potential scenario to defend against, but the ones that you can isolate and figure out, being as prepared as possible for that is key, right?

Josh Morial: 00:06:01

Yeah.

Josh Morial: 00:06:01

I've always had the mindset of prior planning prevents poor performance.

Josh Morial: 00:06:05

So with that said constant planning, we could adjust a plan to meet whatever comes at us.

Josh Morial: 00:06:14

And that could be from weather to active student situation that we need to tend to and do what we need to do to keep kids safe.

Josh Morial: 00:06:25

But also us as school employees do what we need to do to keep our police officers who are responding safe.

Josh Morial: 00:06:32

We do not want to get in the way as they're coming into a building.

Josh Morial: 00:06:35

So we have different strategies that we do to make sure that they're able to respond as quickly as possible.

Host: 00:06:41

Yeah, that's actually huge because, well, I won't get into the weeds on that, but I could very easily see, for example, if you have, God forbid, a suspect in the hallway armed, and yet you've got a teacher who's walking down a hallway who should have been isolating, suddenly the focus of the police officer changes.

Josh Morial: 00:07:05

Yes.

Josh Morial: 00:07:06

And I never want to put a police officer in that situation.

Josh Morial: 00:07:09

But you know what?

Josh Morial: 00:07:11

School administrators and some of the technologies we do have in a proactive response, making sure that never happens.

Host: 00:07:18

Yeah, I think looking back, I want to take us back just a little bit about.

Host: 00:07:23

You mentioned our focus was on weather and say, fire.

Host: 00:07:28

Fire drills, that sort of thing.

Host: 00:07:30

Columbine was really kind of a turning point for us and every other school district.

Host: 00:07:37

Right.

Host: 00:07:38

That was in the early: 2000

Josh Morial: 00:07:41

Yeah, I don't recall the exact date, but yes, it was early in my career.

Host: 00:07:45

So that totally changed the focus.

Josh Morial: 00:07:48

Yeah, it changed the mindset of leaders of large campuses to, you know, make sure you're doing everything you can do to keep your students and staff safe.

Host: 00:07:59

So since those days, what changes?

Host: 00:08:02

What significant improvements have you seen through those years?

Josh Morial: 00:08:07

Technology being number one?

Host: 00:08:09

Okay.

Josh Morial: 00:08:12

The changes in technology that we have access to now, by far have improved since I started 27 years ago.

Josh Morial: 00:08:22

These technologies didn't even exist then.

Josh Morial: 00:08:25

And now we have a lot of different technologies available to keep all of our staff and students safe.

Josh Morial: 00:08:32

But the other biggie that I've seen over recent years is staff and student awareness.

Josh Morial: 00:08:40

Example, our tip line Vector alert system.

Josh Morial: 00:08:44

We get tips daily, from minor threats to major threats to things seen on social media that definitely help us as school administrators, but definitely our campus police officers investigate any possible threats.

Josh Morial: 00:09:03

And luckily, a high percent of time those threats are non credible.

Josh Morial: 00:09:09

But, you know, I want our stakeholders, our parents and friends of students and students and staff to know that every tip is thoroughly investigated.

Host: 00:09:21

Yeah.

Host: 00:09:21

And when you do an investigation, it's twofold, Right.

Host: 00:09:25

It's kind of like a police investigation, like you mentioned.

Host: 00:09:28

And then I would assume after the police investigation, investigation is complete, than an administrative investigation as well, right?

Josh Morial: 00:09:36

Yes, definitely.

Josh Morial: 00:09:38

And our police department, under the leadership of Ron Storey chief story.

Josh Morial: 00:09:45

They have great relationships with their school administrators.

Josh Morial: 00:09:48

It's a nice marriage of, hey, this is right now criminal investigation.

Josh Morial: 00:09:53

We're investigating it, but we want to give you a heads up.

Josh Morial: 00:09:55

This is something that you're going to need to know about here in a little while.

Josh Morial: 00:10:00

And they communicate throughout the process to make sure school administration is aware to do what they need to do in the case of a school threat.

Host: 00:10:09

Yeah.

Host: 00:10:09

So if I can.

Host: 00:10:12

Let me back up just a notch.

Host: 00:10:15

The reason that you do the criminal investigation first is because that implies that there could be a life safety element involved, right?

Josh Morial: 00:10:23

Not necessarily.

Josh Morial: 00:10:24

I mean that is a.

Josh Morial: 00:10:26

It could be, but we don't want to impede a criminal investigation that might have to go to court.

Host: 00:10:33

Sure.

Host: 00:10:33

And then you get into bigger issues like evidence tampering and that sort of thing if you're not careful.

Josh Morial: 00:10:38

Definitely.

Josh Morial: 00:10:38

So police own it if it's criminal.

Josh Morial: 00:10:41

And they, they invite us in when they have completed their part of the investigation.

Host: 00:10:47

And what about the.

Host: 00:10:48

I remember not long ago we had had the, I think it was Appalachian High School shooting that took place and shortly thereafter it seemed like we received 10, dozens of hoax calls, but we didn't know they were hoaxes at first.

Host: 00:11:08

How did that all play out?

Josh Morial: 00:11:10

Every threat, every tip comes in and we investigate it thoroughly.

Josh Morial: 00:11:16

Our PD, whether it be Sunday at 7am, which we had during that time a threat come into a school, was investigated through the day and our pd, when needed, they go right up to the gbi, to the FBI and involve anyone who needs to be involved to find out what is going on.

Josh Morial: 00:11:38

At that point, school administration is also informed because normally by then students are talking because it is on social media.

Josh Morial: 00:11:46

Some of the tips that come in are from students who see stuff on social media that doesn't seem right.

Josh Morial: 00:11:54

And again see something, say something that happens and our PD is able to do their job and keep everyone safe.

Josh Morial: 00:12:01

But to your point, yes, after a unfortunate situation at Apalachee High School, we did receive numerous threats around our district.

Josh Morial: 00:12:13

None were credible, but every single one was investigated thoroughly and handled thoroughly.

Host: 00:12:21

So you investigate it even if it seems like, oh, this is just like the other one.

Host: 00:12:25

That's not real, 100%.

Host: 00:12:28

You can't trust that.

Josh Morial: 00:12:29

Never, never.

Josh Morial: 00:12:31

We take every tip as if it's an active threat.

Josh Morial: 00:12:36

And until the PD rules that out, we do what we need to do to keep kids and staff safe.

Host: 00:12:42

Okay.

Host: 00:12:43

So one of the things I've heard in probably social media and maybe even the press is that we ought to be Doing X, Y and Z metal detectors, for example, at every door of every school.

Host: 00:12:59

And, you know, all of these measures that at first blush, it's like, well, okay, that kind of makes sense.

Host: 00:13:07

But then you dig into the realities of it and there's a problem with it.

Host: 00:13:13

Like, it's almost like you're turning schools into a prison if you go that far with it.

Host: 00:13:19

How do you determine.

Host: 00:13:23

How do you draw that line between a positive learning environment and a vigilant endeavor to prevent issues that could threaten the safety of staff or students?

Josh Morial: 00:13:39

Yeah.

Josh Morial: 00:13:39

Without getting into the weeds on that, because our safety plan is only seen by those who are working the safety plan and in the need to know for their part of the safety plan.

Josh Morial: 00:13:52

We do have strategies in place to keep everyone safe throughout a building or buildings on our high school campuses.

Josh Morial: 00:14:00

But there are technologies that you will see.

Josh Morial: 00:14:05

You've talked about evolve.

Josh Morial: 00:14:08

And those are the.

Host: 00:14:11

And just for clarification for the audience, those are the two posts that you walk through.

Host: 00:14:17

At a high school football game.

Josh Morial: 00:14:19

Yeah.

Josh Morial: 00:14:19

At our stadium, you'll walk through it.

Josh Morial: 00:14:21

At our arena, you'll walk through it.

Josh Morial: 00:14:22

It's an AI weapon detection system and a little different than a metal detector.

Josh Morial: 00:14:28

But back to your point, you may see those.

Josh Morial: 00:14:31

But we also have technologies that you won't see, and we have things that you don't see that help keep students and staff safe.

Josh Morial: 00:14:38

And unfortunately, I know everyone wants to know a little bit more about that, but we keep that to those that need to know.

Josh Morial: 00:14:46

Our police officers and the monitoring groups that monitor what's going on on our campuses.

Host: 00:14:52

Really close to the vet.

Josh Morial: 00:14:54

Yes, it has to be.

Josh Morial: 00:14:56

I always use this scenario.

Josh Morial: 00:14:58

If a varsity football coach gives the opposing team his game plan on Monday for the game coming up this Friday, it's real easy to beat that game plan.

Josh Morial: 00:15:10

So you don't see coaches sharing game plans before the game, and that's done.

Josh Morial: 00:15:14

So that they are the only ones that know how they're going to move forward with that game.

Josh Morial: 00:15:20

And we do the same with our school safety plan.

Josh Morial: 00:15:22

Those that need to know.

Josh Morial: 00:15:23

No, what we have.

Josh Morial: 00:15:25

And the police know what they have to do to keep everyone safe.

Host: 00:15:31

Okay, so last question for you.

Host: 00:15:35

And hopefully we've covered some things here that the audience has newly learned.

Host: 00:15:40

That's the whole point.

Host: 00:15:41

And by the way, this may be the one exception.

Host: 00:15:45

We call the podcast the inside scoop.

Host: 00:15:47

But you're not going to get an inside scoop on the technologies and such.

Host: 00:15:51

But what have you seen as probably the biggest factor in maintaining a safe environment?

Host: 00:15:58

For the school district in our schools.

Josh Morial: 00:16:02

The biggest push that I have is everyone has a place in helping us keep schools safe.

Host: 00:16:10

What do you mean by that?

Josh Morial: 00:16:11

To see something, say something.

Josh Morial: 00:16:14

Letting your school administrators know, using the tip line, letting your police officer at your school know, letting your principal know if you have a concern for safety.

Josh Morial: 00:16:24

Because once that is shared, we definitely look into it and see how we could do better.

Josh Morial: 00:16:32

It's a constant looking at data, looking at our situations that come.

Josh Morial: 00:16:38

How do we get better?

Josh Morial: 00:16:39

I spend every day looking at every situation to see what we can do to keep everyone safe.

Josh Morial: 00:16:46

Every day.

Josh Morial: 00:16:47

And change with whatever changes we need to make to keep people safe.

Host: 00:16:51

You are no doubt a very busy man, folks.

Host: 00:16:55

As we have been preparing to start the podcast, his phone rang at least six times, I would say over a span of maybe 10 minutes.

Host: 00:17:05

So all times day or night, too.

Host: 00:17:09

Right.

Josh Morial: 00:17:09

And that's testament to the work our principals are doing, our assistant principals, and see something, say something.

Josh Morial: 00:17:18

And they're notifying me.

Josh Morial: 00:17:20

I notify PD or technology.

Josh Morial: 00:17:22

And it's not always what parents might think of a major event.

Josh Morial: 00:17:28

Might be something very minor, but we get ahead of it.

Josh Morial: 00:17:31

And that line of communication from the schools to district office to PD to technology is critical.

Josh Morial: 00:17:41

And I work real hard to make sure that we don't have a breakdown there and keeping everyone looped in.

Josh Morial: 00:17:46

But.

Josh Morial: 00:17:46

But to your point, yes, when I was principal, you were real busy at the time students were on your campus.

Josh Morial: 00:17:54

This job is a little different.

Josh Morial: 00:17:57

I get busy in the afternoons, later in the evening, when kids are playing around on social media.

Josh Morial: 00:18:03

And that's a big ask from us, is asking parents to be aware of what your kids are doing on their phones, on their technology, on their social media.

Josh Morial: 00:18:13

Because that's definitely changed over the years, which gives people a platform to do wrong.

Host: 00:18:21

Yeah, yeah.

Host: 00:18:22

And neither you nor I are attorneys, but I would imagine parents might have an interest in the liability their kids are setting up for them.

Host: 00:18:31

So maybe that's another podcast we can have at some point in the near future.

Host: 00:18:35

Josh, thank you so much for coming in and sharing some of these things.

Host: 00:18:38

And thank you for not sharing too much.

Josh Morial: 00:18:40

Well, thank you very much.

Host: 00:18:42

So safety, obviously, is a broad topic, from stop swapping teen vaping to anti gang initiatives and active shooter protocols.

Host: 00:18:51

You can find more details on each major area on the Cobb Shield page of our website.

Host: 00:18:57

That's cobbk12.org we'll drop the links in the show notes and description so that you won't have to hunt around for it.

Host: 00:19:05

And of course, information about the Vector tip line will be there too.

Host: 00:19:09

Did you hear something you didn't already know?

Host: 00:19:12

If so, like, subscribe Share this podcast with a friend.

Host: 00:19:16

Thanks for listening to this edition of the Inside Scoop, a podcast produced by the Cobb County School.