TEXAS SCHOOL SAFETY CENTER

An increase in fake active-shooter reports since the beginning of the school year has intensified parents’ anxieties and required an additional law enforcement response.

After eight students and two teachers were murdered at Santa Fe high school in 2018, state legislators passed more than a dozen laws. None of those laws prevented Uvalde and pressure is mounting for lawmakers to address lingering gaps in school security.

Texas education officials have created a program to conduct in-person, unannounced intruder tests starting this year at schools across the state to review districts' safety and security measures.

His presentation, “Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events” (CRASE), addressed the events in Uvalde, El Paso, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook and Buffalo, New York. TSU is also the home of the Texas School Safety Center which offers, among other tools, the K-12 Standard Response Protocol Toolkit with guidance and resources for incorporating the SRP into a school safety plans, says its website. Just a couple of weeks ago, Harlingen teachers and administrators were trained in dealing with active shooter and other emergency situations. You’re going to have to fight. You’re going to have to fight.

Hays County law enforcement, school administrators and staff took part in reunification training this week.The Hays County Standard Response Protocol Task Force brought in the I Love U Guys Foundation[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

Texas School Safety Center officials said they will alert districts and local law enforcement of the audits, where trained staff will try to find access points into school buildings. But school campuses will not be informed ahead of time.

The meeting was attended by the Harlingen school board, school administrators, and representatives of the Harlingen Police Department. “This is one of the key recommended best practices that has emanated from the Texas School Safety Center.”The Texas School Safety Center describes it’s K-12 Standard Response Protocol as a toolkit that offers guidance and resources for incorporating the SRP into a school safety plan for critical incident response within individual schools in a school district. “Every visitor who makes a visit to any of our campuses, they get screened through that visitor management system,” Castillo said. On some of our campuses you’ll have the camera system on that control box that’s outside the secure area. Castillo said the district has already implemented the Raptor Drill Management System, and this fall it will put in place the Raptor Alert System.

Threat assessment aims to prevent attacks like the Uvalde school shooting. Studies suggest that it’s effective in other ways.

Abbott has tasked the Texas School Safety Center with conducting in-person, unannounced audits of public schools to see how quickly staff can enter a building without being stopped and detect weak points.

Texas requires schools to have emergency plans and conduct safety drills. But a lot of decisions about safety are left to school districts and charter schools.

Texas Southmost College recently received a School Safety Spotlight Program recognition from the Texas School Safety Center for its collaborative safety and security work with local, state and federal agencies. TSC’s spring 2022 School Safety Spotlight recognition falls under the program’s Collaborative Community Partnership category proving that TSC’s safety initiatives are innovative and establish or maintain collaborative, working relationships between the college and its community partners. In addition, it states that these partnerships go above and beyond what is required in law and influences numerous safety and security efforts. TSC Associate Vice President for Operations Jaime Salazar said this recognition validates that what TSC is doing in terms of campus safety and security is effective. “This has facilitated and supported our unconventional approach to campus security, which exceeds standards and incorporates interagency planning, implementation, response and recovery efforts.”