When a Gwinnett school locks down, the district's first instruction to parents is not to drive there. Two GCPS pages describe a soft lockdown differently, Georgia now has a crime written just for school threats, and the tip line takes texts.
If your child's Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) school is placed on lockdown or evacuated, the district asks parents not to go to the school. "Excessive traffic could interfere with law enforcement efforts or emergency response," the district's Student Safety and Wellness page says, checked November 4, 2026. "The school will contact you to let you know how to proceed."
That page also says a lockdown happens when school officials and local law enforcement decide conditions inside or outside the building are unsafe. No one may enter or leave until it's lifted, which can push back dismissal.
What's the difference between a soft lockdown and a hard lockdown?
Where the danger is. GCPS defines them this way on the Student Safety and Wellness page:
Soft lockdown: conditions outside the school are unsafe. Students and staff keep a normal school day but stay inside the building.
Hard lockdown: conditions inside the school are unsafe. Students and staff stay in classrooms and follow safety procedures until it's lifted. Students should turn off or mute phones, because "a ringing phone could alert an aggressor."
Evacuation: the building itself is unsafe to stay in.
The handbook entry on Parent Information Regarding Safe Schools adds detail. In a hard lockdown, all interior doors are locked, students are confined to classrooms, and no one enters or exits. You'll know a school is in a hard lockdown because the main entrance will be locked. In a soft lockdown, all exterior doors are locked.
The two pages don't agree on one point. The handbook says that during a soft lockdown, "In some cases, parents could be admitted into the school with proper identification," such as a driver's license or valid photo ID. The Student Safety and Wellness page says no one may enter or leave during a lockdown. GCPS hasn't posted one reconciled rule, and we found no district statement addressing the difference between the two pages. Either way, the district's standing instruction is to stay away until the school contacts you.
What do shelter in place and evacuation mean for pickup?
Shelter in place means moving into a small interior room until it's safe to release students. The handbook says it's used to protect students from hazardous materials in the air and isn't the same as sheltering from a storm.
If a school is evacuated, the handbook says each school has a reunification procedure. Parents are sent to a specific location and must show ID. A student can generally be released only to an adult listed as an emergency contact. A noncustodial parent must be listed on the child's emergency contacts as a guardian and must show ID. School leaders follow law enforcement and emergency agencies on whether to evacuate.
How will GCPS tell me about a lockdown or threat?
Mostly through ParentSquare. The district's Emergency Notifications page says GCPS uses ParentSquare to send emergency notices by phone, email and/or text, using the contact information you gave the school. Information may also go up on the school or district website, on Facebook, and on X at @GwinnettSchools, and letters may follow later for families at an affected school.
The same page explains why calling the school doesn't help. Staff may be working with students and first responders, and a flood of calls can bog down the phone system. Instead, GCPS suggests checking gcpsk12.org or your school's website, watching for the ParentSquare notice, and monitoring local TV and radio.
One handbook entry is out of date here. The safe schools page still tells parents the district's notification system is "SchoolMessenger." The Emergency Notifications page and the district's ParentSquare page name ParentSquare.
The handbook lists three rules for students during an emergency: follow the teacher's or principal's directions, make sure it's safe before using a cell phone, and don't leave campus unless told to.
Who polices Gwinnett schools?
GCPS has its own police department. The Safety and Security page says the Office of Safety and Security includes P.O.S.T. certified police officers, office staff and dispatchers. The Gwinnett County School Police Department holds State of Georgia Law Enforcement Certification, which the district says only three public school system police agencies in the state have.
The Student Safety and Wellness page, checked November 4, 2026, lists 123 school resource officers, with two at each high school, one at each middle school and several at elementary schools. The School Resource Officers Program page says every SRO has at least five years of law enforcement experience and a postsecondary degree. Officers are organized into five zones by cluster.
Mary Williford is interim chief and director of Safety and Security. The school police office is at 1229 Northbrook Center, Suite A, Suwanee, Georgia 30024. Its phone is 770 513 6715.
Does GCPS use metal detectors?
It uses the Evolv weapons detection system, which GCPS says is different from a traditional metal detector. The Student Safety and Wellness page says Evolv uses low frequency electromagnetic fields and AI powered software to detect concealed weapons and can tell weapons apart from phones and keys.
Evolv came to GCPS middle and high schools in the 2025 to 2026 school year, after use at stadiums and gyms. The district's Evolv page says a pilot at five elementary schools runs from Wednesday, August 5, 2026, through Friday, December 18, 2026: Burnette, Cedar Hill, Centerville, Ivy Creek and Meadowcreek. Scanners run at morning arrival and when visitors enter, and School Safety Officers operate them.
GCPS also lists the Centegix crisis alert system in every school, which lets staff call for help and gives first responders their exact room and floor, along with more than 11,000 security cameras, a security vestibule at each school, and Raptor screening of adult visitors against the National Sex Offender Registry. Every school runs regular lockdown and fire drills.
How do I report a threat to a Gwinnett school?
GCPS lists these routes on its Report a Concern page:
Call 911 in a life threatening emergency.
Call 770 513 6715 to make a police report or report an emergency that isn't life threatening.
Call or text the School Safety Tip Line at 770 822 6513, or text GCPS to 738477. You don't have to give your name.
Use the GCPS Tips app for Apple or Android, or the web form at P3Campus.com/5105. Both are anonymous.
For violence, threats or crime that isn't an emergency, call the principal first, then Safety and Security at 770 513 6715.
Statewide, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation takes tips through its See Something Send Something app, which the GBI Watchdesk processes 24 hours a day.
State law now requires every district to offer anonymous reporting. House Bill 268, which Governor Brian Kemp signed April 28, 2025, told each local board to make an anonymous reporting program available by July 1, 2026, with support around the clock through at least a mobile app and a multilingual crisis center.
Is it a crime to threaten a school in Georgia?
Yes, and since 2025 it has its own Code section. House Bill 268 created O.C.G.A. § 20-2-1181.1, the offense of "terroristic threat of a school." It covers threatening any crime of violence, a hazardous substance release, or burning or damaging property, when the threat is meant to terrorize people at a school, on a school bus or at a school activity, or to force an evacuation. It also covers a threat made "in reckless disregard of the risk" of causing that terror or evacuation, so it isn't limited to threats someone meant seriously. The new offense sits alongside Georgia's general terroristic threats law, and prosecutors decide which charge to bring.
The penalties scale with the threat:
A terroristic threat of a school is a misdemeanor.
If the threat suggested the death of any person, it's a felony punishable by up to a $1,000 fine, one to five years in prison, or both.
If someone suffers a serious physical injury as a direct result of the threat, it's a felony carrying up to $250,000 and five to 40 years. HB 268 attaches that range to the threat offense itself, not only to the separate terroristic act offense.
The law says no one may be convicted based only on the uncorroborated testimony of the person threatened. A separate offense, a "terroristic act upon a school," is a felony from the start, and HB 268 gave superior court exclusive original jurisdiction over 13 to 17 year olds charged with it.
HB 268 also amended O.C.G.A. § 20-2-1181. Threatening the death of or serious injury to a group at a public school, school bus or bus stop now counts as disrupting the school, a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature. When there's a credible accusation against a student, the school may temporarily assign that student to remote learning, provide counseling and investigate.
What happens at school to a student who makes a threat?
School discipline runs alongside any criminal case. The GCPS Student Behavior Conduct Code Matrix lists separate infractions for oral threats and written threats. Its top level school disruption entry, "Causing a complete lockdown or extended evacuation," shows 4 to 10 days in the Suspension (OSS) column. The matrix says schools may deviate from it.
GCPS has publicly answered a wave of threats before. In a September 17, 2024 news post, the district said it had received thousands of calls and emails about threats, and that its school resource officers, local and state police, the GBI and the FBI were investigating each one.
Make sure the school has every adult who might pick up your child listed as an emergency contact, with current phone numbers. Save 770 822 6513 in your phone and your child's.