Abbott tells educators to randomly inspect school safety

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Governor Greg Abbott launched a “direct, unannounced, random intruder detection audit in the school district” on Wednesday to state school security and education authorities to find weak access points and staff. Instructed me to see how quickly I could enter the school building without stopping.

The mission was to the security authorities of the school to ensure that the district’s emergency operations plan was solid and the school building was protected following the school slaughter of Yuvarde, which killed 19 children and two adults. It was one of the few governors mentioned in the letter to me.

Abbott said in a letter to Texas School Safety Center director Kathy Martinez Plaza Wednesday that the tragedy in Uvalde last week needed more action.

“Countries need to go beyond writing on paper to make sure the law is being followed. Also, a culture of constant vigilance is an employee of all campuses and school districts throughout the state. You need to make sure it’s infiltrating the people, “he said.

Education advocates and lawmakers swiftly condemned the idea of ​​a fake intruder without notice.

Texas State Teachers Association spokesman Clay Robison has expressed concern about whether unannounced trainees are at risk of being attacked by someone on campus who sees them as a real threat. Did.

“If that really means invading the school, it could be an accident waiting to happen,” he said, and Abbott’s latest school proposal is “in the wrong hands.”

Shannon Holmes, Managing Director of the Texas Professional Educators’ Association, expressed similar concerns.

“If there is no coordination between the local campus or ISD and the person conducting the audit, it’s an accident recipe,” Holmes said.

On Twitter, Texas Parliamentarian Diego Bernal and D-San Antonio, a member of the House Board of Education, criticized the plan.

“So, do you want grown-up men to appear in school without notice and try as hard as they can to find a way?” Bernal wrote on Twitter. “This is a terrible idea.”

The Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University was launched in 1999 after being shot by the Colombine School and was approved by the Legislature in 2001. It was created to act as a clearinghouse for school safety and security information, training and support. Applied research was conducted at K-12 public schools, charter schools, and community colleges in Texas. We receive annual funding within our state budget and provide training and resources on everything from tobacco control campaigns to active shooter threats through state and federal grants.

It is unclear if the Texas School Safety Center has previously conducted such a security audit or if the school district will be notified in advance that it has been audited.

The center did not answer the email questions. In a statement, the spokesperson said he had received the letter, and the center “designed programs and action items to specifically address the governor’s instructions within a set deadline.”

State leaders also did not answer a clear question as to whether the district would be warned about audits in advance.

“This is a new, enhanced level of audit,” said Abbott spokesman Renae Ez. “until now, [Texas School Safety Center] After SB11 was passed in 2019, we are reviewing the school district’s emergency operation plan. This is an audit of the implementation of these plans, especially for access control procedures. “

A spokeswoman directed the Texas Tribune to the Safety Center for more information.

The Texas Education Agency has reported that the Texas School Safety Center has a toolkit for auditing districts’ own security practices.

“If someone calls from a school, facility, district, or community depending on the intruder, we strongly recommend that you notify law enforcement members and district-level managers of the assessment.” The kit states. TEA did not immediately answer questions about TEA’s role in these audits and whether the agency had previously conducted similar audits.

In addition to random security audits, Abbott has required the Center to conduct school safety reviews for all Texas public schools.

He confirmed to the center, each school district, an emergency operational plan, including an active threat plan for each school district, confirmed that all staff and agents were trained in the plan, and access points to the building. Instructed to warn that we must meet this summer in order to carry out the assessment. By September 1st, it will include the single access point protocol, locked instruction room door policy, visitor check-in rules, and the effectiveness of the front door lock. The center will present the findings to the governor by October.

Abbott also called on the Center to make recommendations to the Texas Capitol to determine the funding or possible improvements needed to “continue to work to strengthen the school against external threats.”

Abbott and other state leaders adopted similar rhetoric to improve school security following a 2018 school shooter in Santa Fe, southeast of Houston, but experts said security. Outside and in the classroom, active shooter plans and security cameras have reduced gun violence at school, saying there are no signs that measures were most often promoted by civil servants.

In 2019, state legislators passed a package of school security laws, including a law authorizing school safety centers to audit school district emergency operations plans.

Under that law, if the school district does not adequately submit an emergency operational plan, the school district must notify the community at a public meeting. According to Abbott’s letter, TEA can take over the leadership of the school if they do not hold such a meeting.

In an audit conducted by the Center in 2020, only 67 of the 1,022 school districts had a viable emergency operational plan. On the other hand, only 200 school districts had a positive shooter policy, while an additional 196 school districts had policies that auditors considered inadequate.

Abbott’s letter arrived the same day he instructed the Texas State Parliament to establish a special committee to make legislative recommendations in response to the shootings at Uvalde’s school, possible before the next session in 2023. It was not possible to ask for a special legislative session to consider legislation.

Senate Democrats and several Republicans called for a special session.

Disclosure: The Texas Professional Educators’Association and the Texas Teachers’ Association are financial supporters of the Texas Tribune, a non-profit, non-partisan news organization partially funded by donations from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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