As the Boerne Independent School District continues to review its safety and security procedures at each campus and facility in the wake of last month’s tragic school shooting in Uvalde, an agreement has been made with local law enforcement to provide a full-time School Resource Officer at every school beginning in August when the 2022-23 academic year begins.
The announcement was made during the June board of trustees meeting.
“The big story of the summer is safety and security,” BISD Superintendent Tom Price said during the meeting. “Uvalde put a new focus on it. We are focusing on our safety needs and making sure we are where we need to be at each campus.”
On May 24, 19 children and two adults were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. It was the deadliest shooting ever at a Texas public school. Surveillance footage showed the shooter entered the school through a back door. Authorities said a teacher closed the door and the automatic lock failed.
It was announced during the June trustees’ meeting that BISD and the Boerne and Fair Oaks Ranch police departments and the Kendall County Sheriff’s Office have agreed to “work aggressively toward assigning each Boerne ISD campus with a designated School Resource Officer beginning in the 2022-23 school year.” It was noted the collaboration is in an effort to strengthen safety and security measures at all Boerne ISD facilities.
The city of Boerne will provide eight officers while the city of Fair Oaks Ranch and Kendall County will provide two officers/deputies each, ensuring that each campus has a uniformed member of law enforcement stationed on site.
BISD and the law enforcement agencies share the costs associated with SROs. School Resource Officers are certified law enforcement officers responsible for safety and crime prevention in schools. They are active members of local law enforcement and have extensive background and training and will continue to train for the various scenarios, BISD stated.
This past school year, SROs were stationed at both high schools, all three middle schools and at Curington and Fabra elementaries. Most of the SROs also spent time at the majority of other campuses during the day, as well as at Boerne Academy.
“I’m glad we’re now one on one (with SROs at each campus),” BISD board President Rich Sena said.
In addition to the increase in SROs, Boerne ISD continues to thoroughly review its safety and security protocols, such as performing an internal and external safety audit, screening all visitors before they enter a campus or building and use of multiple layers of security that are visible and not visible.
Price said the district is working on its safety processes and reviewing all safety procedures “to look for ways to do it better.” He said there will be more training for all areas of safety, not just an active shooter, including bus accidents, gas leaks in district buildings and making sure all students are safe and they get to their parents and homes.
Price also said the district is “looking at doors” to make sure they’re working properly and having auto locks on them.
“All measures will be completed by the time the kids come back,” he said, adding that “multiple eyes” at each campus are checking all safety measures and “looking for those cracks.”
“Safety is not about convenience,” Price said, adding, “We’re not trying to make (our schools) prisons. We’re trying to make them safe.”
The bond initiative passed in May includes funds to enhance safety measures at schools and other buildings.
“We’ll walk that fine line with safety without that prison feeling,” Price said.
In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, the Texas Education Agency stated it plans to check whether hundreds of thousands of external school building doors lock properly before the upcoming school year begins.
TEA Commissioner Mike Morath recently told Texas senators that the agency will review external entry points of every school in Texas, which is about 340,000 doors. It will evaluate school facilities to determine what repairs may be needed to secure campuses. There will also be a review of each district’s safety protocols and meetings held between state officials and each district’s school safety committee.
There are more than 1,200 school districts in Texas and more than 3,000 campuses, but Morath promised lawmakers that his agency’s plans to review doors and safety plans will be completed this summer.
In 2019, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 11, which tasks the Texas School Safety Center with making sure school districts have adequate emergency plans. The agency can call on the TEA to act as conservator to make sure plans are up to standard and school districts are compliant, Morath said.
Comment
Comments