Public comments at the June 2026 Cobb school board meeting

By Larry Felton Johnson

I delayed the posting of the public comments video while I made a difficult decision about whether to delete one of the comments.

Under normal circumstances the answer would have been a resounding no. The comment was made at a public meeting, and the reason I’m at those meetings to begin with is because the school board made what I believe is an unwise decision to suspend the livestream of the public comment portion of the meeting. I normally record the comments, pack up my tripod and leave.

In this case, during the regular meeting comments, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale asked that the video be edited to delete references to specific school emergency safety protocols. Under normal circumstances that would be an absolute no. Public officials do not get to dictate what goes into the news.

But this was a trickier case, involving school safety protocols, presumably in active shooter scenarios.

The day after the meeting, while trying to decide what to do, I communicated with the commenter. She said that she in no way intended to undermine school security, but that she’d also prefer that I remove the comment from the video, and that she intends to try other avenues to make her concerns heard.

Out of an abundance of caution, I’m removing the comment. I tried to edit her comments so her more general statement about school safety came through without leaving in the specific procedures, but it turned out to be impossible.

The basis I used for the removal is one of the ethical points of the Society of Professional Journalists, “Minimize Harm.” It’s sort of a corollary to the medical cliche, “First do no harm.”

I intend to figure out how to report on the legitimate concerns that were raised by the commenter without providing a playbook to people who wish students harm.