Area schools make safety a priority
Survey shows that security steps put a strain on district budgets
School districts across Texas have doubled up on safety measures in the years since the deadly shooting at Santa Fe High School and even more in the months following the Uvalde school massacre.
They are installing fences, upgrading door locks and even purchasing costly weapons detection systems with money voters have approved in bond issues. They’re making sure their metal detectors are operating and conducting drills to make sure everyone knows how to handle an intruder, according to a survey completed by more than 150 Texas school districts by Hearst news organizations.
While safety is the districts’ top priority, it puts a strain on their budgets, according to the survey results.
“Since Uvalde shooting, we have spent approximately $700,00 on safety upgrades/initiatives,” Kingville Superintendent Cissy Perez wrote in the survey. “However, we have received $0 from the state/federal government. Districts are hurting financially and this is just one more thing to add to the strain on finance.”
In the wake of the tragedy at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit, with assistance from Hearst Newspapers, sought school safety information from every public school district in all 50 states.
In Texas, 158 school districts responded. That’s about 15 percent of districts statewide.
Nationwide — despite the tragic, unceasing tempo of school shootings in America — a sizable number of districts that responded acknowledge they have not yet briefed their staffs about how local law enforcement would respond to an active shooter on their campuses.
The 15-item questionnaire, sent to districts at the start of the school year this September, captured a unique snapshot of the evolving way schools are addressing safety — and reveal those that admit they are falling short of securing their schools. The results also spotlight new safety initiatives launched to protect classrooms, including those put in place after massacres of children at Sandy Hook, Parkland and Uvalde.
Among the survey’s findings:
• More than 1 in 10 districts that responded to the questionnaire — 11.4 percent — said they allow teachers or district staff to carry loaded firearms on campus, an initiative in some states, such as in Texas and Florida, called “guardian” programs. Don Metzler, superintendent of Callisburg ISD, just north of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, said distance to emergency aid was a factor. “We do not have a local police department in this little town of 342 people,” he said.
• More than a quarter of districts — 26.5 percent — acknowledged that they have yet to tell all staff members in their districts about their local law enforcement’s active shooter response plan. And of those districts that had not completed briefings so far, 13 percent said they were not planning to do so before the end of the current school year in late spring or summer of 2023 — more than six months from now.
• Staffing professional security personnel on school campuses remains a challenge for a third of districts that responded to the Hearst questionnaire. Thirty-three percent — 1 out of every 3 — said they did not have a district police department or sworn law enforcement agency or a school resource officer. More than 6 percent said they had all of those types of personnel currently protecting schools.
Gun, metal detectors
A Texas House committee investigating the police response in Uvalde found 376 officers rushed to the school but a disastrous series of communication breakdowns and other “systemic failures” led to that army of police standing down for more than an hour before entering and killing the suspect.
Immediately after the shooting, Texas Education Agency officials told school districts to tighten up their security measurers and to audit their buildings and systems.
Some Houston-area districts have asked taxpayers to help shoulder the burden through bond issues. Safety and security measures are a major component of the $850 million bond package Spring ISD voters passed this month.
“When we think about security, it’s layered on,” Spring ISD Superintendent Lupita Hinojosa said. “There’s not one device or one strategy that will ensure the safety, but it is layering on the system.
The layers include additional fencing, classroom window coverings and the installation of new safety technology. Spring ISD currently has gun detection systems at three high schools and now plans to install them at all campuses, Hinojosa said.
Shatterproof glass will be added to vestibules at school entrances. Additionally, upgraded systems that lock all vestibule doors will be installed so that visitors will have to be buzzed into the building after identifying themselves.
The district also intends to add window coverings to limit visibility into classrooms. These coverings will be like the ones already installed at Spring ISD’s Roberson Middle School that automatically shut during lockdown mode.
The installation of fencing around campuses is expected to occur this spring.
“It is and will continue to be top of mind for our families, the parents and students,” Hinojosa said.
Fort Bend ISD approved $4.4 million in August for fencing for all elementary schools along with a metal detector pilot program.
The district purchased eight mobile metal detectors that it will use to improve security at events, as well as increase the speed and volume of attendees to be screened.
The devices will be used primarily at the district’s athletic facilities.
FBISD schools have been regularly conducting preparedness drills, so students and staff know their roles and responsibilities during or after an emergency.
Cybersecurity concerns
At the State of the Schools address in October, FBISD Superintendent Christie Whitbeck said the district also planned to strengthen its cybersecurity, in the wake of the recent ransomware attack on the Los Angeles Unified School District.
During the past month, the Texas School Safety Center conducted intruder detection audits at 10 FBISD campuses, to test whether a campus is accessible to an unauthorized individual. Reports for eight campuses came back with no corrective action, which FBISD Police Chief David Rider said was “fantastic.”
“This audit helps identify how we can improve safety for students, such as ensuring exterior doors are locked,” Rider said at Monday’s school board meeting.
Corrective actions for the remaining two school campuses include training and related work orders and are in the process of being completed, Rider said.
Weapons for HISD
Texas’ largest school system, Houston ISD, voted in August to buy 200 rifles and 200 ballistic shields so that the district’s police department could be more prepared for a situation like the one in Uvalde.
Just this month, HISD introduced a new mechanism for students and others to report threats or criminal activity on campuses.
The district will use the Axon Citizen for Communities portal to allow students and staff to submit evidence of threats by uploading videos, pictures and documents for review.
“We have always said that safety is a collaborative effort, and we want to make the collaboration easier,” HISD Police Chief Pedro Lopez said in a prepared statement. “This will be another tool to build trust and allow us to work with our community to ensure our students stay safe in a way that is transparent.”