Safety First: The Requirements and Options for Securing Schools in Texas
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Safety First:
The Requirements
and Options
for Securing Schools
in Texas
School Security Session Overview • Session I: The Crisis, the Response, the Requirements and Options • Session II: Security Assessment, Preparedness, and Media Relations • Session III: Data Security Obligations, Contracting, and Notifications • Session IV: Marshals, Guardians, MOUs, and Private Security • Wrap up: Q&A, Discussion, Collaboration
Session I: The Crisis, the Response, the
Requirements and Options
o The Crisis:
• According to 2012 data there had been a total of 137 fatal school shootings that
killed 297 victims since 1980.
• Elementary schools had the fewest shootings (17), while high schools saw the
most (62).
• Each decade had more shooting deaths than the previous one. (although fewer
student deaths each decade (according to 2015 data))
• Since 2012, there have been almost 300 additional school shootings (of all kinds)
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/map_of_the_week/2012/12/s
andy_hook_a_chart_of_all_196_fatal_school_shootings_since_1980_map.html
Consider School Security Holistically
and Recognize Broad Array of Risks
o Understand the Risk Horizon:
Consider all visitor access issues: vendors, contractors, those under court orders.
Assess other types of lockdowns or containment issues: fires, severe weather, infectious
disease.
Understand that100 school-age children are accidentally killed each year riding their
bikes or walking to school (so safe pathways to school matter).
Recognize that there are 4000 school fires annually, resulting in 75 serious injuries.
Compare 137 fatal school shootings that killed 297 victims since 1980.
Mass school shootings are incredibly rare events; on average, mass murders occur
between 20 and 30 times per year, and about one of those incidents on average takes
place at a school.
There are around 55 million school children in the United States, and on average over
the past 25 years, about 10 students per year were killed by gunfire at school.
https://news.northeastern.edu/2018/02/26/schools-are-still-one-of-the-safest-places-for-children-researcher-says/
School shootings of all types from
2013 through February 16, 2018
https://www.statista.com/chart/12952/school-shootings-in-america/
School gunfire causing injury or death from
December 2012 through February 22, 2018
Time noted the large number of recent school shootings that resulted in one non-fatal injury and credited a fast,
organized response from teachers and administrators to lock down the school.
http://time.com/5168272/how-many-school-shootings/
Santa Fe High School Shooting and Governor Abbott’s Response • Seventeen-year-old shooter killed 10 and wounded 13 others. • Governor Abbott observed “We have what are often categorized as red-flag warnings, and here, the red-flag warnings were either nonexistent or very imperceptible.” • The governor added that the suspect’s t-shirt reading “Born to Kill” appeared to be perhaps the only warning sign, citing the suspect’s lack of arrest history or confrontations with law enforcement. • Suspect took a shotgun and .38 revolver from his father who obtained them legally. • Suspect’s AP language arts teacher had heard that suspect’s sister suffered bullying sufficiently severe to cause transfer to neighboring district. Teacher described suspect as quiet, an introvert, but not creepy. • When asked if she had difficulty believing this could happen at her school, one student reportedly said, “It’s been happening everywhere. I felt — I’ve always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here, too.” • Governor Abbott called a three-day round-table to address school security.
Governor’s Actions and Round Table Highlights
oThe Response
• After Marjory Stoneman, but before Santa Fe, Governor Abbott
directed Commissioner of Education Mike Morath to:
• Catalog and distribute all available information from the Texas School Safety
Center (TxSSC)
• Ensure all Texas public schools have completed their required safety audits and
have multi-hazard emergency operations plans (EOPs)
• Publish a list of non-compliant school districts (none was required)
• Work with TxSSC and DPS to develop legislative recommendations including
• Increased quality control on safety audits and EOPs
• Requiring charter school adherence to safety requirements
• Improving school safety committees
• Requiring terroristic threat reports and parental notification
• Enhancing security for portable buildings and school sporting events
• As Attorney General, Abbott released the School Safety Guide in
2007.
Governor’s Actions and Round Table Highlights
o School and Firearm Safety Action Plan
• Identified various grant funding opportunities to enhance school security
• Encouraged immediate enhancement of law enforcement presence on campuses
• Advocated increasing use of school marshals as authorized by Texas Education
Code Sec. 37.0811 and recommended improvements to the school marshal
program
• Promoted response training for active shooter and emergency scenarios, citing
Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT)
• Advised “hardening” of campus facilities including: controlled access, security and
alarm systems, barriers, and metal detectors
• Recommended improvements to current school safety audit process
• Suggested mental health evaluations and greater on campus access to additional
behavioral health services for students and mental health first aid and threat
assessment training for educators
Governor’s 40-Point Safety Plan
o Increase law enforcement on campuses:
• Share resources with local agencies
• Prioritize hiring retired officers and veterans as SROs
• Train more school marshals and improve the program through …
• Free training
• Increases in the number of marshals allowed per school
• Legislation to possible remove firearm storage requirement
• Improved marshal training
10Governor’s 40-Point Safety Plan
• Provide active shooter and emergency response training:
• Texas School Safety Center training for first responders and coordination
• Training on Standard Response Protocol and Standard Reunification Method
11Governor’s 40-Point Safety Plan
o Proposed Safety and Security Committee Changes (CK Legal):
• TEA Review of Safety and Security Audits
• Meet at least three times annually
• Regular updates to the Board
• Certain mandated members including local law enforcement, emergency planning
personnel, trustees, and parents
• Discuss expansion of patrol zones with local law enforcement so district is included
12Governor’s 40-Point Safety Plan
o Hardening of facilities to integrate security with educational mission
o No one-size-fits-all solution
o Structural options can include:
• Visitor entry vestibules with remote unlocking
• Improved fencing and barriers
• School entrance metal detectors
• Security cameras in key locations
• Specialized active shooter alarms
• Phones/radios in every classroom
13Governor’s 40-Point Safety Plan
o Prevention:
• Increase mental health services, expand access to Texas Tech Health Sciences
Center’s Telemedicine Wellness Intervention Triage & Referral (TWITR) Project
• Train in Mental Health First Aid program to ID mental illness – available beginning
Summer of 2018
• Texas School Safety Center Partnership with Threat Management program for
training
• “Free Up” campus counselors to address students’ mental and behavioral health
needs
14Governor’s 40-Point Safety Plan
o More on Prevention:
• Expand Crime Stoppers and encourage staff and student reporting of tips
• Use confidential reporting apps such as “iWatchTexas” to ensure single, statewide
reporting system
• Increase law enforcement “fusion centers” to monitor social media to ID and resolve
threats – presently only in major urban areas
15Governor’s 40-Point Safety Plan
o Allow teachers to immediately remove students who assault
teachers, or threaten bodily injury to self or others
• But have access to quality educators in AEP settings, where students only stay
briefly
o Increase number of offenses for which a student may be expelled or
sent to DAEP
• Stalking
• Animal Cruelty
• Certain weapons felonies and organized crime offenses
16Resources Following Round Table
o Governor’s School and Firearm Safety Action Plan
o Commissioner Morath’s June 8, 2018, To the Administrator addressed
letter citing:
• U.S. Secret Service and Department of Education’s 2004 Threat Assessment Guide
• Texas Commission on Law Enforcement for Marshal Program information
• ALERRT videos on YouTube, and TxSSC and ALERRT webinar with overview of Civilian
Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE) course with video also available on
YouTube
• Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) grant program and the Every
Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Consolidated Application
• TEA Director of Emergency Management Candace StoltzExpectations created by law
o The Requirements:
• Prepare Multi-hazard Emergency Operations Plan (Tex. Educ. Code § 37.108; TASB
Policies CK and CKC)
• Create School Safety Committee (Tex. Educ. Code § 37.109; TASB Policy CK)
• Conduct Safety and Security Audits and report to TxSSC (Tex. Educ. Code § 37.108;
TASB Policies CK and CKC)
• Recognize presumption that schools are gun-free zones, requiring exceptions or
authorizations to carry on campus (18 U.S.C. § 922; Tex. Penal Code § 46.03; TASB
Policy GKA)Multi-Hazard Emergency Operations Plan –
Policy CKC (Legal)
• Districts must adopt and implement a multi-hazard emergency
operations plan for facilities
• Plan to deal with multiple hazards must include:
• Emergency mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery
• Employee emergency response training
• Mandatory drills and exercises to prepare students and employees for responding
to an emergency
• Coordination efforts with the Texas Department of State Health Services and local
emergency management agencies, law enforcement, health departments, and fire
departmentsFour Emergency Plan Components • Mitigation & Prevention • Assessment of all potential hazards – natural or “man-made” • Preparedness • Conduct drills and ensure that parents and first responders know protocol • Response • Good planning = successful response • Recovery • Coordination of needed resources
School Safety Committee– Policy CK (Legal) • Develops and implements emergency plans consistent with the District’s multi-hazard emergency operations plan to ensure adherence to specific campus, facility, or support services needs • Provides the District with any campus, facility, or support services information required in connection with a safety and security audit, a safety and security audit report, or another report required to be submitted by the District to the TxSSC • Reviews each report required to be submitted by the District to the TxSSC to ensure reporting of accurate and complete information regarding each campus, facility, or support service
Safety and Security Audit – Policy CK (Legal) • Safety and security audit required every three years; results sent to Texas School Safety Center • District must establish a school safety and security committee – assists with emergency plans, safety and security audit and report • “Audit” intended to be an on-going process integrating regular safety and security self-assessments, including planning, training and drills for emergency procedures • Texas School Safety Center recommends safety and security audits be conducted by a team of stakeholders including central office administrators, teachers, school nurses, counselors, parents, law enforcement personnel, maintenance personnel, and community volunteers
Possible Additional Steps for Security
• The Options
• Facility enhancements
• Perimeter and entry assessment and modification
• Metal detectors, wands, and clear bag use; consider
contracting for services to avoid use of untrained ticket
takers and gate-keepers
• Door closer arm “sleeves” or barricades
• Armed personnel
• Increased presence
• Marshals
• Guardians
• Memorandum of Understanding
• District Police Department
• Private Security
• Personnel training
• Active shooter scenarios / lockdowns / student searches
• Security badge and check-in procedures
• Law enforcement coordination
• Reunification procedures
• Mental health awareness and responseVisitor Screening, Database, Rejection • A District may require a person who enters a district campus to display photo identification issued by a governmental entity. • A District may establish an electronic database for the purpose of storing information concerning visitors to district campuses that may only be used only for the purpose of school district security and may not be sold or disseminated to a third party for any purpose. • A District may verify whether a visitor to a district campus is a sex offender registered with the computerized central database maintained by the Department of Public Safety or any other database accessible by the district. • The board of trustees of a school district shall adopt a policy regarding the action to be taken by the administration of a school campus when a visitor is identified as a sex offender. Tex. Educ. Code § 38.022; TASB Policy GKC (Legal). Check your GKC (Local) and determine whether administrative regulations are needed. • Identification may be required of any person on school property. A school administrator, school resource officer, or district peace officer may refuse to allow a person to enter on or may eject a person from property under the district’s control. Tex. Educ. Code § 37.105; TASB Policy CLA (Legal)
School Safety and Security Fundamentals
• School safety requires a comprehensive approach, customized for a
district’s circumstances and needs
• Primary Considerations:
• Review of Safety Audits and Emergency Response Plans
• Enhancement of technology-based security measures such as access control
devices and visitor screening protocol
• Possibly increasing law enforcement and/or other armed or security personnel
• Application of additional attention to students’ mental health needsUp Next:
Session II:
Security Assessment,
Preparedness, and
Media RelationsYou can also read
