One of the most important things we’ve learned is that on Wednesday, the morning of the shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia, the mother of the school shooter received a text from her 14-year-old son with a cryptic message prompting her to call the school about an “extreme emergency.” It is not clear what she communicated to the school but such a warning — especially now in hindsight — seems like it could have been potentially life-saving.
This knowledge raises questions about the school’s protocol for emergencies or warnings, even vague ones: Was the school immediately put on lock down? Why was the student in question not immediately removed from the classroom based on the warning? Was it simply too late?
CNN reported that about 30 minutes passed from the mother’s call to the school and the time police were notified of the shooting. It’s unfortunate that either the warning was too late or somehow the student was not able to be removed from the classroom in time before he became violent.
As is the case with most school shootings, there were additional potential warning signs that the shooter might become involved in criminal activity. In May 2023, the FBI received a tip about online threats to commit a school shooting. Law enforcement followed up and spoke to the shooter’s father, Colin Gray about his guns and the would-be shooter who denied making threats. Because authorities could not substantiate the threats, the investigation closed.
But the warning signs were there. In particular, like many school shooters, this boy's home life seemed troubled and chaotic.
Even after law enforcement visited the father and son, Colin Gray gave his son the gun he eventually used in the shooting last week. Colin Gray has already been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.
Even though Gray had told authorities he had been trying to involve his son in hunting, outdoorsmanship and gun safety, if his son was struggling with mental health, making threats or his life at home was chaotic, giving him a gun at that time seems like a poor decision. However, plenty of fathers and sons enjoy hunting or target practice without becoming alleged criminals too.
It’s difficult to say what red flag laws might have prevented Gray from owning a gun or gifting one to his son. Perhaps there are some and this case could be used as an example to examine how they might be written to be more effective.
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office told schools to monitor the potential shooter but it’s not clear what that entailed and if this was communicated to schools when he moved to a different county and enrolled in a different high school.
The shooter lived only with his father, Colin Gray, and a family member has now come forward saying he was “evil” and responsible for his son’s mental health struggles. The family member said Colin Gray deserves the death penalty. The shooter will be tried as an adult but the maximum sentence he could receive is life in prison, due to his age.
If there is a silver lining to this tragic crime or if there are lessons to be learned beyond examining red flag laws and loopholes, it’s that school resource officers were heroes and are a boon to school districts with safety concerns. In the Georgia shooting, as soon as SRO’s encountered the shooter, reports say he gave up.
In an ideal world, there would be no school shooters and preventative measures in the form of laws would achieve this 100% of the time. But until then, hardening schools and other “soft” targets must be paramount.
In 2022, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp reinforced school safety with several key measures, including funding via grants for training of SRO’s. In 2019, Kemp provided almost $70 million in school security grants so that every public school received $30,000 for school security measures.
Thanks to those measures, the SRO’s at Apalachee High School have undoubtedly saved countless lives. While funding SRO’s is expensive, it seems vital.
As was the case with the last several school shootings, including Nashville, Uvalde and Parkland, warning signs become clear in hindsight. The key is to determine if or how policies can be crafted that might better utilize such warnings before the shooting occurs. Unfortunately, such warnings are often piecemeal; scattered among a school counselor, parent and a member of law enforcement, all who only see one sliver of the entire picture before it becomes a tragic event. The Georgia shooting is awful and the four innocent victims deserve justice. Hopefully some of the information we have learned can help us collectively determine how to prevent this from happening again.
