Sheriff’s emails reveal school threats Habersham SROs say they were never told about

CORNELIA, Ga. — When a fifth-grader was accused of threatening to bring a gun to school and shoot people, was the deputy assigned to protect that school told? Emails obtained by Now Georgia say she was not.

The emails show Habersham County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) school resource officers were left unaware of at least two reported threats involving students this school year. In the Cornelia Elementary case, the assigned deputy learned of the allegation only after her supervisor received a call from outside the school system.

The emails, written by HCSO Lt. Aaron Autry to Sheriff Robin Krockum, raise questions about how serious school-safety incidents are communicated between Habersham County Schools Police Chief Murray Kogod and the sheriff’s deputies assigned to protect district schools. Autry oversees the SRO program.

The information contained in the emails is difficult to reconcile with what the school system recently told Now Georgia: that its police department had encountered “no incidents” requiring a full incident report and that serious incidents had been turned over to the sheriff’s office.

The emails surfaced after Now Georgia published a Sept. 21 report examining missing records and unresolved questions surrounding the legal authority and operation of the Habersham County Schools Police Department.

Following that story, Now Georgia received an anonymous call from a woman who said she lives in Habersham County and works “with the school system.” She alleged that serious incidents were not being properly disclosed or communicated and said a concerned school employee had contacted Cornelia’s police and fire chiefs.

Now Georgia followed that trail.

Cornelia Fire Chief Billy Jenkins confirmed he had received information about a student allegedly threatening to bring a gun to school. Jenkins said he passed the information along to Lt. Autry. Cornelia Police Chief Jonathan Roberts confirmed that he, too, was made aware of the employee’s concern.

“I received the complaint from our fire chief,” Roberts told Now Georgia. He also said he contacted Autry, advised him of the situation, and offered Cornelia Police assistance if there was an immediate threat.

The matter was ultimately turned over to the sheriff’s office, Roberts said.

‘Threatening to bring a gun’

An Aug. 31 email from Autry to Krockum provides the clearest account yet of what authorities were told.

Autry wrote that Roberts and Jenkins contacted him about a concern involving a fifth-grader at Cornelia Elementary. According to Autry, Jenkins connected him with a source who wanted to remain anonymous because of the source’s employment with the school system.

The allegation was serious.

Autry wrote that the student was “threatening to bring a gun to school and shoot people!” According to the information relayed to him, school administrators knew about the threat and were requiring the student to use a mesh backpack, but the source remained concerned about whether additional precautions were being taken.

Autry then contacted HCSO School Resource Officer Lynn Moore, who is assigned to Cornelia Elementary, about the student’s threat.

She had not heard about it.

According to Autry’s email, Moore approached the principal, who told her the matter was “old news” and had occurred while Moore was away on funeral leave. The principal said school officials had contacted Kogod and that “he handled the situation.”

Autry said neither he nor Moore had been told about the incident.

“This is the third similar incident this year which Chief Kogod has handled,” Autry wrote, adding that the lack of communication between the school police department and sheriff’s office SROs was “deeply concerning.”

The email does not detail all three incidents. But another email Now Georgia obtained documents one of them.

‘Shoot the school up’

On Aug. 17, Autry emailed Krockum and HCSO Maj. Ty Moss about an incident three days earlier at Wilbanks Middle School.

Autry wrote that a student in an art class had allegedly threatened to “shoot the school up!” The sheriff’s sergeant normally assigned to Wilbanks was off that day, and Autry said he had spent much of the day at the school before leaving to help with traffic elsewhere.

He said no one from the school contacted him about the threat.

Autry said the assigned SRO learned about the incident the following Monday only after Kogod came to the school for a meeting involving the student’s parent.

According to the email, neither Autry nor the SRO had been told about the original threat and were not included in the meeting.

“Chief Kogod has not advised me of this incident,” Autry wrote. “Appears that Kogod is conducting his own investigation and not including the SRO assigned to that school or I.”

Incidents went unreported

Those emails raise questions about an Aug. 31 response Now Georgia received from Habersham County Schools records custodian Angela Robinson.

“While the BOE Police Department has secured its own Interops Reporting Database, we have not had any incidents that would require a full incident report nor have we had to arrest a student,” Robinson wrote.

She also said, “To the best of my recollection, all serious incidents that would fall under these types of offenses have been turned over to the sheriff’s office investigations division.”

The emails do not establish whether either threat was referred to the sheriff’s office investigations division. They do show that Autry, the supervisor responsible for the district’s SROs, complained at least twice that he and the deputies assigned to the affected schools had not been informed about school threats Kogod was handling.

Now Georgia also contacted the municipal police departments that provide SROs to Habersham County Schools. Baldwin Police Chief Chris Jones and Demorest Police Chief Casey Chastain said their school resource officers had not been informed of any reported threats at Habersham County public schools.

Now Georgia has requested all police reports generated by the Habersham County Schools Police Department during the 2026-27 school year. No responsive records had been provided as of publication.

Superintendent Patrick Franklin and all five elected Board of Education members were also contacted for comment. As of publication, none of them had responded.

Kogod could not be reached by phone for comment. He is attending the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police Fall Training Conference in Savannah, which runs from Sept. 21 through Sept. 24. The GACP site shows Kogod is teaching a course called “GASROE Traitor Series” that touts his nonprofit (Georgia Alliance of School Resource Officers and Educators) and calls those who speak out against it “traitors.”

By the book?

School police department policy says officers are responsible for initial and secondary reports of crimes “and other matters” occurring on school property and directs officers to conduct preliminary investigations and create police reports “promptly and accurately.” The same policy directs officers to investigate reported crimes, complete incident reports, and ensure information is disseminated accurately and promptly.

Kogod’s job description also specifically names him as the liaison between the sheriff’s office and the school system and says he is expected to collaborate with school resource officers to keep schools safe. The department’s critical-incident policy goes further, requiring incident reports and after-action reports for incidents handled under that policy.

It is not yet clear whether school officials classified any of the reported threats as critical incidents. Because school police did not report them directly to the sheriff’s office and the incidents only came to light through an informant and open records requests, some now question school safety.

“As a parent, I do not feel that our children are safe due to the lack of communication that is currently occurring with Mr. Kogod,” said parent Leigh Stallings-Wood, an outspoken critic of the school system’s layered approach to school safety. “He does not share information, nor does he include the other agencies within our community to create a team approach to safety. As the old saying goes, there is no ‘I’ in team.”