A Habersham Central High School student-athlete was hospitalized Saturday after the vehicle carrying the school's cross country team was rear-ended by a vehicle on Interstate 85 outside Atlanta. The crash happened as the team was returning from an overnight competition in Fayette County, and parents are now asking why no Habersham County Schools police officer traveled with the group on the multi-county trip.
According to parents, the injured student was transported with a possible head injury, though the student's identity, current condition, and the number of students riding in the vehicle were not immediately available, as reported by Now Georgia. The vehicle carrying the Habersham Central cross country team members was rear-ended on Interstate 85 in DeKalb County, and it was not immediately clear whether anyone else aboard was hurt or which agency was investigating the collision. Parents also told the outlet that students waited along the interstate after the collision, with some phoning parents directly from the roadside while district officials contacted families as well, according to a post on Now Habersham's Facebook page. Some parents ended up picking their kids up from the scene, while the same Facebook post noted that the wreck closed lanes on the highway in DeKalb County.
Parents Question the Missing Police Escort
Parents questioned the absence of a Habersham County Schools Board of Education police officer on the trip and raised questions about coverage during the overnight athletic outing. It also was not immediately clear whether a school police officer had been requested for the trip, or how many coaches, school employees, or adult chaperones accompanied the team. The outlet reported that district crash procedures for incidents occurring outside Habersham County were not immediately clear either.
Questions about travel security for school trips remained unresolved.
A Department Already Under Fire
The Saturday crash raised questions about law-enforcement and emergency-response coverage for students traveling outside Habersham County, and it lands at a moment when the school system's police department is already facing scrutiny on multiple fronts. Just two days before the crash, Sheriff Krockum suspended the reserve-deputy status of Chief Kogod and Officer Victoria Hopper, citing unresolved jurisdictional and contractual disputes between county officials and the school board. That suspension stemmed from an August 13 incident in which a school officer conducted an off-campus traffic stop seven miles from campus without dispatching a deputy or documenting a school-related connection, according to reporting from Now Georgia. The suspension affected the officers' reserve status with the sheriff's office but did not affect their employment with the school system.
Separately, school police approved citations tied to the district's school-bus stop-arm camera program. And in April, local officials questioned the handling of a $100,000 public safety grant after a $60,000 law enforcement shooting simulator purchased with the funds turned up in the possession of a private nonprofit rather than at the sheriff's office.
How the Department Was Built
School Safety Structure The report did not provide details about how the department was built or the legal authority and training requirements applicable to school security personnel.
The available report did not detail the district's school-safety partnerships, staffing, or number of schools. Whether school policy requires an officer to travel with student-athletes on overnight, out-of-county trips was not independently confirmed. Now Georgia said it would update its report as additional information about the crash and the injured student's condition becomes available.
According to the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety’s Georgia Traffic Safety Facts, there were 1,552 fatal crashes resulting in 1,664 traffic fatalities on Georgia roadways, the largest number of traffic fatalities since 2006.
The crash adds to a run of incidents that have kept Habersham County law enforcement in the news this year, including a nine-hour manhunt near Mud Creek that prompted temporary school lockdowns and the firing of a Habersham County deputy over Flock camera misuse. For now, families of the cross country team are left waiting for clarity on both their child's recovery and the policies that were supposed to protect the team on the road.
