HOMER – As the new school year approaches, the Banks County Board of Education 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 system with an instantaneous response by a heavily-armed, highly-trained, proactive protection detail,” says 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 unsubstantiated threats against our school system after the 2018 Parkland High School incident.”
Asked how the unit got its start, Speed explains it was in response to concerns about how the sheriff’s office could quickly address active threats in the county’s schools efficiently 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 says. “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 wasn’t working basically.”
After looking at what was going on in the state, the region and the nation, Speed says he and Chief Deputy Shawn Wilson realized they couldn’t find something suited to Banks County’s needs.
“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 person in the fastest, most efficient manner with keeping any devastation to a minimum,” Speed says. “At that point, he sat down and talked to one of his good friends, SWAT instructor Lt. Mark Gerrells in Rabun County.”
After brainstorming for a couple of weeks, Wilson and Gerrells presented their concept to Speed.
“We looked at it,” Speed says. “We went back to the drawing table a couple of different times. We refined it then, when we had something we thought we could work with, we brought it down to the school system.”
When presenting it to the Banks County Board of Education, Speeds says 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, assistant superintendent, for working with sheriff’s office leadership to bring the program into being.
“We’ve been fortunate in the fact that all the administrators, Dr. Hopkins and the previous superintendent as well, were very interested in seeing how this thing would transpire,” Speed says. “Everybody agreed that we thought it was going to be a great program.”
Speed and other officials are very quick to say that most details of the program are confidential to protect its integrity and effectiveness. That’s why specifics are guarded and known only to those involved in the HERO 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 says. “They also have the ability to monitor the school system as a whole, not only from one location but from multiple locations. Not only can they monitor, they can also communicate.”
Speed says that the built-in redundancy will provide eyes and ears for the deputy responding to the threat in a particular school so that he or she is not rushing blindly into danger.
“It we have one officer responding to a situation in one of the schools, the other officers can take over the communication and direct that officer to the response and tell them what’s going on in those areas where the perpetrator or perpetrators may be and what they need to do to address the threat,” Speed says.
The specialized personnel assigned to the unit will actively monitor and record daily school activities from on-site locations, Speed says.
“The HERO Unit is prepared to act without hesitation and with overwhelming force should the unfortunate need arise,” Speed says.
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 says.
“It’s worth any cost, because they know what they’re doing,” Hopkins says of the program. “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.
“It’s a partnership, absolutely,” Speed says. “We’re working together ultimately for the safety of the kids. Like Dr. Hopkins said, there’s no price tag you can put on the safety of a child.”
Speed says 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 education, we’ve got to listen to what the experts in safety tell us,” Hopkins says. “That’s what we learned from the shooting in Florida is that education people don’t know enough. We are so thankful for the relationship that we have. I think our board of education is really committed to that, because not only are they working on this end to keep them safe but they’re also trying to tackle some things as preventive for mental health and that kind of thing, so it’s a two-handed type situation. They are putting their money where their mouth is, and we can’t appreciate that enough.”
Deputies assigned to the HERO Unit undergo a psychological evaluation, multiple physical fitness assessments, advanced firearm proficiency skills, and other undisclosed tactical training, “all the while getting used to the overabundant amount of equipment assigned to them,” Wilson says. “Lt. Mark Gerrells, a highly sought-out Special Weapons and Tactics [SWAT] instructor, wrote the training program specifically tailored to the requested needs of the premier HERO Unit.”
Asked how the slots in the specialized unit were filled, Wilson says, “We looked for veteran law enforcement officers with the right mental and physical abilities to handle situations that might arise in the schools as far as critical incidents go. We really like to look for deputies with prior combat military experience or prior SWAT background.”
While not going into detail about specific training or the officers involved in the program, Wilson says it goes far and above what the average patrol deputy or school resource officer receives.
“We have a program that was tailored to what we are calling the HERO Unit and it deals with what the deputies in previous events have had to deal with,” Wilson says. “It really stays focused on school shootings or other critical incidents surrounding the schools. We try to really focus on those areas with these deputies so that if the time ever comes, our folks are very prepared to handle the situation.”
School leaders and the sheriff’s office command staff work to ensure the right fit of a HERO Unit member in a particular school.
“We work together and make sure that we get them the right people that they are comfortable with, also,” Wilson says. “We have to be very comfortable with these people that we’re sending over into this position.”
Speed says members of the unit have he latest equipment to handle active threats that might arise in the county’s schools.
Wilson says school resource officers will remain in the county’s schools, and that their purpose and function is different from the HERO Unit.
“The school resource officers will remain in the schools,” Wilson says. “They’re going to be very visible and they’re going to be out in the hallways, they’re going to be teaching classes. Our CHAMPS program is still going to be going on in the fifth grade, so you’re not going to lose that piece. And I think that’s the comfort level.”
Ramey says the SROs are on the front lines of discouraging any potential threat, but having the hidden tactical layer is designed to ensure that any active situation is addressed quickly and ends with minimal casualties.
“They work with each other, but they are separate,” Ramey says. “We’re not losing the SRO. We’re maintaining that friendly presence, that relationship building that instructs and teaches with student interaction and directs traffic with a smile on their face and lets folks in the community know that police officers are here to protect and serve. Not only do you have that component, but now you have this tactical piece behind the scenes that’s there in your worst-case scenario if evil decides to knock on the door one day.”
Hopkins agrees.
“We’ve got the best of both worlds is what we have,” Hopkins says. “You’ve got that presence to be the face of the school system and work with administrators on different aspects and communicate with parents, providing that whether it be relationship or fear factor to students. Then you’ve got the whole extra tactical part that other schools don’t have that provides that safety for us.”
Banks County has 2,800 students going into the new school year.
Speed says Wilson’s military background and law enforcement experience uniquely suited him for the design of the specialized unit.
“I knew immediately that we had the opportunity to build something here that would be unique,” Speed says. “When we started looking for something that we could do differently to try to make sure everybody was safe, I had no qualms at all about saying look at this and see what you can come up with and let’s go down this path and make something that’s unique and different that’s going to work.”
Hopkins said she and Ramey also are very thankful for the unwavering support of the board of education.
“They have listened to every recommendation we have made, whether it be about preventive care or how to keep kids safe, and they have not batted an eye,” Hopkins says. “I just can’t thank them enough for the support we have. We’re blessed.”
The HERO Unit began last school year but remained confidential for safety and logistical reasons to allow fine tuning where needed.
Even the trainer who wrote the tailored training for the HERO Unit says Banks County has a unit that goes over and above what other systems have in place to ensure student and staff safety.
“HEROes are dedicated to protecting the children, teachers and staff at all costs,” Gerrells said. “It has been my pleasure to work with these outstanding deputies. The risk they will go to protecting your children is beyond admirable.”
Speed hopes that uniqueness will discourage anyone who might contemplate causing harm within the school system.
“I don’t know of anybody else anywhere that’s got anything like it, but I think we’ve got something that’s going to save lives and it’s going to protect our children, which is ultimately the goal that we’re all looking for,” Speed says.
