ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday signed a law that supporters hope will prevent future school shootings like the one that killed two students and two teachers on Sept. 4 at Apalachee High School northeast of Atlanta.
Richard Aspinwall, the father of the Ricky Aspinwall, one of the teachers who was killed, called Monday “a great day for advancing safety.”
“I don’t want anyone else to have to go through this,” Aspinwall told reporters. You see it happening all over the country. It’s got to stop. Some way or another, it’s got to stop."
But like with most new laws, putting the words into practice will be key.
“Everybody's got to work together,” Rep. Holt Persinger, the Winder Republican who represents Apalachee High School and sponsored the bill, said after the signing ceremony. He said that included not only schools and local law enforcement agencies, but Georgia’s child welfare, mental health and emergency management agencies.
House Bill 268 was driven in part by the belief among many that the Barrow County school system didn’t have a full picture of the warning signs displayed by the 14-year-old accused in the fatal shootings. School officials never became aware that a sheriff’s deputy in Jackson County had interviewed Colt Gray in May 2023 after the FBI passed along a tip that Gray might have posted a shooting threat online.
The new law requires police agencies to report to schools when officers learn that a child has threatened death or injury to someone at a school. It also mandates quicker transfers of records when a student enters a new school, creates at least one new position to help coordinate mental health treatment for students in each of Georgia’s 180 school districts and sets up an anonymous reporting system statewide.
Public schools will have to provide wearable panic buttons to employees and would be required to submit electronic maps of their campuses to local, state and federal agencies once a year.
The law also makes adult prosecution the default when children aged 13 to 16 are charged with terroristic acts at school, any aggravated assault with a gun, or attempted murder.
The measure, though, required only a reduced version of a student-tracking database that was once a centerpiece of the bill, after opponents raised fears that it could become a permanent blacklist of students. Instead, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency was directed to create a database of students who an investigation has found threatened violence or committed violence at schools. The law directs GEMA to make rules about when names would be included and how someone could petition to be removed. But lawmakers didn't specifically appropriate any money to GEMA for what they called an “emergency alert system.”
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith called the measure a “good start line,” but agreed cooperation would be key moving forward.
“You’re not always going to get the job done unless you communicate," Smith said. "And you’ve got to understand what lanes they’re in. Law enforcement has a lane, education has a lane, and then you have the taxpayers who have a lane.”
Getting the law passed was emotional for many, including Persinger, who cried on the day it got final approval, and for the Aspinwall family
“It is part of the healing, but you never really heal," Aspinwall said. "You always have your memories. It always hurts.”
Ilan Alhadeff holds a photograph of his daughter Alyssa Alhadeff, next to his wife Lori, as they are recognized by Gov. Brian Kemp (not pictured) before Kemp signs the student safety bill, House Bill 268, at the north wing steps of the Georgia State Capitol, Monday, April 28, 2025, in Atlanta. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Gov. Brian Kemp, next to first lady Marty Kemp signs the student safety bill, House Bill 268, at the north wing steps of the Georgia State Capitol, Monday, April 28, 2025, in Atlanta. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Gov. Brian Kemp, facing, greets House Speaker Jon Burns, during a press conference about the signing of numerous bills including the student safety bill, House Bill 268, at the north wing steps of the Georgia State Capitol, Monday, April 28, 2025, in Atlanta. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.
In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.
Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.
If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.
For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.
“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.
Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.
"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.
Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.
Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.
Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.
The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.
“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.
As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.
What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.
The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.
One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.
Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.
“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.
The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.
Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.
“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.
Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.
“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
