Oconee County Schools Reported To State That Six Incidents Involving Weapons Took Place At Its Schools In School Year 2022-2023

***A Single Incident Involving Weapons Reported Year Earlier***

Oconee County Schools reported to the Georgia Department of Education six incidents at its schools involving weapons during the last academic year in the required Discipline Incident Type Count due at the end of the school year.

Two of the six incidents involved knives, two involved rifles, and two involved other unspecified weapons.

Oconee County Schools has provided to the public no information on any of the incidents, though open records requests indicate that it did communicate via email internally about three of the incidents.

Oconee County Sheriff James Hale posted about those same three incidents on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.

The Oconee County Board of Education did hold two disciplinary hearings this spring after news about those three incidents became known, but it has refused to release even redacted information about the causes of the hearings or the outcomes.

Oconee County Schools cited the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) as the justification for not providing the requested redacted information about those hearings.

The six incidents reported for the 2022-2023 school year contrast with the single incident involving a weapon reported for the 2021-2022 school year. The incident reported for the 2021-2022 year involved a knife.

State Discipline Incident Report

All school systems in the state of Georgia are required to submit annual incident data to the Georgia Department of Education regarding disciplinary and placement actions taken during the prior school year.

Sheriff Office Post March 14

As part of that requirements, school systems are expected to submit a Discipline Matrix that lists Discipline Incident Types.

In its report dated June 13 for the last school year, Oconee County Schools reported the two knife incidents, two incidents involving rifles, and two incidents involving other weapons.

The rifle category also is intended to include shotguns, according to the Georgia Department of Education Discipline Matrix Quick Reference Guide.

I obtained the Oconee County June 13 report through an open records request.

Details of Incidents Reported

The Oconee County report for the just completed school year lists one knife incident at High Shoals Elementary School and one at Oconee County High School.

Both were judged to be of Level 2 severity.

The scale ranges from No Severity to Level 3.

The report lists one rifle incidents at North Oconee High School and one at Oconee County High School. Both were labeled as Level 3 severity.

Both of the incidents involving other weapons were at North Oconee High School. One was labeled Level 2 in severity, and the other was labeled Level 3.

The report also lists 17 Disorderly Conduct incidents, 16 incidents involving Drugs Not Alcohol, 40 involving Fighting, 7 involving Alcohol, 7 involving Bullying, 17 involving Threat Intimidation, 27 involving Tobacco, 119 involving Attendance, and 142 involving Student Incivility.

State Data

I also obtained data for all 189 schools systems in the state from the Georgia Department of Education.

Sheriff Office Post March 20

That report includes some discrepancies with the report I obtained from Oconee County Schools directly.

The number of Incivility incidents for Oconee County was 187 in the state report, for example, versus the 142 in the report provided by Oconee County Schools.

Attendance Incidents were 119 in the local report but 151 in the state report.

The number of incidents involving weapons (6) was the same in the two reports.

Comparisons With Barrow, Clarke

The state data show that the number of incidents involving weapons was much higher in neighboring Barrow County Schools and Clarke County Schools than in Oconee County Schools.

Sheriff Office Post May 1

Both Barrow and Clarke reported 33 incidents involving weapons in the last academic year

Barrow County had reported 23 incidents involving weapons the year earlier, and Clarke County had reported the same number each year, 33.

Barrow County Schools, with 14,882 students at the beginning of the last academic year, and Clarke County, with 12,340 students at that time, are considerably larger than Oconee County Schools.

Oconee County Schools, in its official count for October of 2022, had 8,531 students.

The number of incidents with a weapon was 7.03 per 10,000 students in Oconee County Schools last year, compared with 22.17 in Barrow County Schools, and 26.74 in Clarke County Schools.

Types Of Weapons, Change From Previous Year

The Barrow County incidents primarily involved knives (25), with eight incidents listed as involving other weapons, compared with the two involving knives four involving other weapons in Oconee County.

Yancey Email March 14

The Clarke County incidents also were disproportionately involving knives (26) with only three involving handguns and four involving other weapons.

Oconee County Schools reported the single incident involving a weapon–a knife–in school year 2021-2022.

Oconee County’s incident with a weapon increased from 1.19 per 10,000 students in school year 2021-2022 to the 7.03 in school year 2022-23.

The increase was just slightly greater in Barrow County (16.04 to 22.17) but much smaller in Clarke County (26.28 to 26.74).

High School Incidents

Oconee County Sheriff James Hale, on his Facebook page on March 14, reported that on that date a student at Oconee County High School “reported to school administrators that another student had two firearms in their vehicle.”

Carter Email March 20

“We were immediately notified, and we secured the weapons and removed them from campus,” he wrote.

“The student was promptly removed from campus, and at no time was any student in danger,” he wrote.

On March 20, Hale posted that, at North Oconee High School, “school administrators were notified that a student had a firearm in their vehicle.”

“We were immediately notified, and we secured the weapon and removed it from campus,” he wrote.

“The student was promptly removed from campus, and at no time was any student in danger,” he wrote.

Knife Incident

On May 1, Hale posted that “Earlier today, Oconee County Elementary School administrators were notified that a student was in possession of a pocket knife on campus.”

Templeton Email May 1

“School administrators immediately confiscated the knife,” he wrote. “We were quickly notified and arrived on campus within minutes to conduct an investigation,” he continued.

“The student was promptly removed from campus, and at no time was any student in danger,” he wrote.

“Please note that at no time did anyone attempt to use the knife,” the post said.

In the report that Oconee County Schools provided to me, no knife incident was listed for Oconee County Elementary School.

A knife incident was listed at Oconee County High School, the next school listed on the Matrix. It seems likely the data were misfiled.

No dates for the incidents are given on the data file released by the Georgia Department of Education, so it is impossible to know if the report for a knife incident at Oconee County Elementary School is the incident discussed by Hale.

The Oconee County report to the state did not list any knife incident at Oconee County Elementary School, though, based on Hale’s report, one took place on May 1.

School Notices

While no notices were sent to the public, principals at Oconee County High School, North Oconee High School, and Oconee County Elementary School did send out email notices on the incidents at their schools.

Kevin Yancey, Principal at Oconee County High School, wrote on March 14 that “a student reported to school administrators that another student had two firearms in their vehicle.”

“The weapon was secured immediately and taken from campus by the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office. The student was removed from campus by law enforcement, and at no time was any student in danger,” he said.

Keith Carter, Principal at North Oconee High School, wrote on March 20 that “Earlier today, school administrators were notified that a student had a firearm in their vehicle. The weapon was secured immediately and taken from campus by the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office.”

“The student was removed from campus by law enforcement, and at no time was any student in danger,” Carter wrote.

Ashley Templeton, Principal at Oconee County Elementary School, wrote on May 1 that “Earlier today, school administrators were notified that a student was in possession of a pocket knife on campus.”

“School administrators immediately confiscated the knife and contacted the Sheriff’s Office,” she continued. “The student was promptly removed from campus. Please know that at no time did anyone attempt to use the knife.”

Disciplinary Hearings

The Board of Education held disciplinary hearings on March 21 and April 17, shortly after information about the incidents involving weapons at the two high schools was reported by Oconee County Sheriff James Hale.

Board Minutes 3/21/2023

The minutes of the March 21 meeting reports that the Board affirmed the finding that the “student violated the code of conduct as described in the disciplinary hearing record and the punishment imposed by the hearing officer.”

The minutes of the April 17 hearing state that the Board voted “to affirm the finding that the student violated the code of conduct as described in the disciplinary hearing record and the punishment imposed by the hearing officer.”

State law specifies that the Board of Education shall prepare a written summary of proceedings of school disciplinary tribunals that “shall include a description of the incident and the disposition thereof but shall not contain the names of any party to the incident.”

Oconee County Schools refused to release a description of the incident and the disposition of the case in response to an open records request, saying that “All student records are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.”

Missing Information

No information is available on the incident involving a knife reported by Oconee County Schools to the state at High Shoals Elementary School or on the two incidents involving other weapons at North Oconee High Schools.

Board Minutes 4/17/2023

No information is available on the knife incident at Oconee County High School unless that is a reporting error and the incident actually was the one reported by the Sheriff and by Principal Templeton at Oconee County Elementary School.

Over the last several months, I have filed numerous Open Records Requests with Oconee County Schools for information about incidents involving weapons at Oconee County Schools.

Through those open records requests, I was able to obtain a copy of the report Oconee County Schools filed with the Georgia Department of Education listing Discipline Incidents by Type.

I also was able to obtain email messages from the principals at Oconee County Elementary School, North Oconee High School, and Oconee County High Schools announcing to their internal email list the single knife incident and the two incidents involving rifles at the two high schools.

The details of my efforts to obtain this and other information from Oconee County Schools follow.

First Open Records Requests

I filed my request for information on the two disciplinary hearings held by the Board on March 21 and April 17 on April 19, including a reference to the Georgia Code dealing with Public School Disciplinary Tribunals.

The code states that “the board of education shall prepare a written summary of any proceeding conducted under this subpart, which summary shall include a description of the incident and the disposition thereof but shall not contain the names of any party to the incident. The summary shall be a public record.”

In my request to Oconee County Schools, I wrote: “I am requesting a written summary of the proceedings, including a description of the incident and the disposition thereof, minus the names of any party to the incident, for the Oconee County Board of Education Student Disciplinary Hearing on 3/21/2023 and for the Oconee County Board of Education Student Disciplinary Hearing on 4/17/2023.”

Steven Colquitt, Director of Communications for Oconee County Schools, responded in my email on April 25, and included the minutes of the two hearings.

Colquitt wrote that “The following records, or parts thereof, are exempt from disclosure:”

“1. Records which are made confidential by federal law, including, without limitation, student records which are protected from disclosure by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 USC § 1232g) will not be produced (OCGA 50-18-72(a)(1) and (37).”

“2. To the extent that any records or documents which you request do not already exist, no records will be prepared. Oconee County Schools is not required to prepare records that do not exist at the time of the request (OCGA 50-18-71(j)).”

Follow Up Request

I wrote back to Colquitt on April 26, saying that “The materials you provided me, minutes of the Board of Education meetings of 3/21/2023, and 4/17/2023, do not include the minimum information required to be included in the summary of proceedings specified by O.C.G.A. § 20-2-757.”

I also said that the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) allows schools to release de-identified records.

“You also indicated that some of the records I requested are exempt because they did not exist when I filed my open records request,” I wrote.

“The Board is required to create a “written summary” under Georgia Law, I continued, and that summary is a public document that should be covered by Georgia’s Open Records law.

I said I was repeating my request of April 19, 2023.

On May 1 Colquitt wrote back, saying “The summaries are the minutes of the meetings. All student records are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.”

Request Of Attorney General

After receiving that email, on May 1, I filed a request with Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, whose office is supposed to provide mediation in open records disputes.

On May 10, I received this reply from Jennifer Colangelo, Senior Assistant Attorney General:

“Although the Attorney General is explicitly given the authority to enforce the provisions of the Open Records and Open Meetings Act, that authority doesn’t extend to other statutes, such as O.C.G.A. § 20-2-757 and FERPA.”

“Therefore, because the school system has complied with the requirements of the ORA by citing the specific code section that it relied on as the basis for withholding the records, and because our office can’t offer an opinion about whether O.C.G.A. § 20-2-757 requires the school system to provide the records you requested, we are unable to mediate this complaint,” she wrote.

Colangelo wrote that the Open Records Act “gives you the right to bring a lawsuit against the school system.”

DS010 Form

I filed my request for the “most recent filing with the Georgia Department of Education for Oconee County Schools of the form DIS010,System Totals By Discipline Incident Type, Student Record Data Collection System (FY2023)” on July 4.

Colquitt responded and provided the form on July 10.

That form indicated that Oconee County Schools had six incidents involving weapons in the school year just completed.

It also includes the listing of a knife incident at High Shoals Elementary School and a knife incident at Oconee County High School.

It does not include the knife incident at Oconee County Elementary School that Sheriff Hale had reported.

Messages From Administrators

On June 5, before I had received that report from Colquitt, I filed an open request for communications directed to parents and/or students regarding a list of incidents.

I asked for “any and all messages sent from administrators and/or staff of Oconee County Schools to parents and/or students of Oconee County Schools from Jan. 1 of 2023 until May 31 involving the following incidents as listed in the DIS010 as part of the Discipline Incident Type Counts report to the Georgia Department of Education: Weapon Knife, Weapon Handgun, Weapon Rifle, Weapon Other, Weapon Other Firearm.”

On June 8, Colquitt responded saying “please note that hundreds of people from the current 11 schools and district office fall into the category of ‘administrators and/or staff.’”

“Honoring your request would take an immense amount of manhours to accomplish,” he continued. “You would be charged for that time at approximately $50 per hour, payable in advance.”

I responded that same day, saying “Based on your advice, I will narrow the search to messages from school principals and Dr. Jason Branch and Dr. Dallas LeDuff.”

On June 12, Colquitt wrote: “Please list the names of the principals (along with Drs. Branch and LeDuff and the initial search terms) in your request so that nothing gets missed in the process. I want to give you accurate time and cost estimates to search for and retrieve any potentially responsive material.”

On June 22, I wrote: “I am seeking any and all messages sent from Dr. Jason Branch, Dr. Dallas LeDuff, Principal Ashley Templeton (Oconee County Elementary School), Principal Kevin Yancey (Oconee County High School), Principal J. Keith Carter (North Oconee High School ) to parents and/or students of Oconee County Schools from Jan. 1 of 2023 until May 31 involving the following incidents as listed in the DIS010 as part of the Discipline Incident Type Counts report to the Georgia Department of Education: Weapon Knife, Weapon Handgun, Weapon Rifle, Weapon Other, Weapon Other Firearm.

I received an email reply that same day saying Colquitt was out of the office.

More Back And Forth

One June 29, Colquitt wrote: “This is to confirm receipt of your open records request. Please be advised that each email search will require 30 minutes of staff work time. With 25 searches (five persons with five topics each), that is 12.5 hours. At $50 per hour, your cost would be $625, which must be paid in advance.”

“Please let me know if you wish to proceed in having OCS search for and retrieve any potentially responsive material,” he continued.

On July 1, I wrote “I will modify my request.”

“I am seeking any and all messages sent from Principal Ashley Templeton (Oconee County Elementary School) regarding a "knife", from Principal Kevin Yancey (Oconee County High School) regarding a "firearm", and from Principal J. Keith Carter (North Oconee High School ) regarding a "firearm" to parents and/or students of these three schools respectively from Jan. 1 of 2023 until May 31.”

On July 7, Colquitt wrote “This is to confirm receipt of your open records request. Please be advised that each email search will require 30 minutes of staff work time. With three searches (three persons with one topic each), that is 1.5 hours.”

“At $50 per hour, your cost would be $150, which must be paid in advance. Please let me know if you wish to proceed in having OCS search for and retrieve any potentially responsive material.”

On July 8, Colquitt wrote: “The total I sent you was incorrect, and I’m sorry for the error. Three searches covering 1.5 hours will cost $75. My apologies.”

I told Colquitt I would pay $75 and delivered that money to him on July 10, the next day the school office was open,

Response from Colquitt

I received the materials requested on July 10 on July 13, which was three days after I had received the DIS010, System Totals By Discipline Incident Type for Oconee County,

Included in that July 13 response were eight attachments, which included the messages from Yancey, Carter and Templeton.

Some additional correspondence from the three to individual parents also was included. The names of the parents were redacted.

Since my narrowed request did not include "knife" for Oconee County High School, it is impossible to know if Yancey sent out an announcement about a knife incident at the school.

I had not included the principal at High Shoals Elementary School in my narrowed request, since I had not yet received the DIS010, System Totals By Discipline Incident Type when I agreed to narrow my request.

The narrowed request should have included any announcement that Carter sent out about Other Firearm, even though I did not know of those two incidents.

Nothing in the responses I received indicated that Carter sent out any message other than the one on March 20 regarding a “firearm.”