USA TODAY International Edition
More security for Texas students after shooting
Some Santa Fe parents worry that upgrades aren’t enough
When students return to school at Santa Fe High on Monday, they’ll notice a bevy of security upgrades, including new metal detectors, more armed officers roaming the halls and panic buttons in every classroom. But some parents and security analysts said those efforts fall short and are calling for outside security experts to advise the school board and an independent review of the mass shooting May 18 that left eight students and two teachers dead.
“I have lots of concerns,” said Donna Hayes, whose son, Scott, 15, will be a sophomore at the high school. “Basically, we have a failed system that needs to be fixed.”
A Galveston County grand jury indicted Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, this month on charges of capital murder and aggravated assault on a peace officer in the attack that killed 10 and wounded 13. Pagourtzis, a junior at the high school, allegedly opened fire in art classes using his father’s sawed-off Remington shotgun and a .38 pistol, ac-
cording to court documents. Police said he admitted to the mass shooting after his arrest.
School district officials spent the summer hiring more resource officers, outfitting the school's front vestibule with bulletproof glass and installing nine metal detectors at entrances.
At a school board informational meeting Thursday, authorities detailed other steps they’ve taken, including installing more security cameras, beefing up anti-bullying measures and monitoring social media for signs of planned attacks.
“Obviously there has been a tremendous amount of work that has taken place to prepare for starting school next week,” school board president Rusty
Norman said. “There is a tremendous amount of things still to be done.”
But the district has focused too heavily on what it will do to respond to shootings rather than on how to prevent them, said Paul Luker, a Texas-based energy security consultant who has worked with some Santa Fe parents to assess security at the school.
The school still lacks a reliable system of processing and acting on cases of bullying and hasn’t released where exactly the system failed as Pagourtzis’ violent intentions went unnoticed, he said. Luker said he has offered to work with the school to help them meet national guidelines for threat assessments but hasn’t gotten a reply.
School district officials did not respond to multiple requests for interviews for this story.
“Until they make a paradigm shift away from response and focus on prevention, they’re not going to stop these,”
Luker said. “They’re just not.”
Jennifer Cooper, 45, whose sons, ages 14 and 17, will be attending Santa Fe High, said she has been frustrated with how little district officials have shared about lessons learned from the shooting and by the lack of federal oversight on securing the school.
Cooper and other parents have called for an independent review of the incident.
School board officials have said they are conducting their own internal investigation, and federal investigators and researchers from Texas A&M University also are examining the incident.
But a true independent study is key, Cooper said.
“You would think a federal agency would swoop in and make sure everything is as secure as possible or tell you what it should be to make it that,” Cooper said. “Instead, we’re placing that burden on school board members.”