Lindsey Stiner
Lindsey Stiner is a news anchor and reporter with Pronews 7.
Read more: Local, Crime, Education, Community, News, How Safe are our Schools, How Safe are Texas Panhandle Schools, How Safe are Region 16 Schools, Region 16, Region 16 Esc, Region 16 Education Service Center, Bushland, Bushland Isd, Bushland Independent School District, Added School Security, Bushland Isd Added Security, Potter County Sheriff's Department, Bushland Isd Superindendent Don Woods, Don Woods, Potter County Sheriff Brian Thomas, Rick Davis, Rick Davis Bushland High School Principal, Making Schools Safer, School Shootings Concerns
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The tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut has put doubt in the minds of many parents and school officials. They're now asking, how safe are our schools? That question has led to community meetings and safety reviews in local districts as parents push for tougher security.
BUSHLAND, TEXAS --
In a three-part series, Pronews 7 looks at the lengths Region 16 schools are going to make sure our children remain safe.
Looking at images and video from the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, they're images many of us can not erase. The stories of horror and heroes are engrained in our hearts and make many people wonder about their schools.
Shortly after the December tragedy at the school, the Texas School Safety Center reported 78 school districts had either failed to submit safety audits or didn't meet full compliance. Six of those school districts are in the Panhandle. One of them is Bushland Independent School District, but Bushland Superintendent Don Wood said it all came down to a computer glitch.
"The technicality was that when we did submit an audit it was kicked back, but no one notified us it was kicked back. And when you're not notified, and you don't know, you just don't know," said Bushland Superintendent Don Wood.
He resubmitted the questionnaire and by the state's standards the district is now considered safe. But he said, it's been that way for some time. Even so, after the shootings. The district, like many across the Texas Panhandle, conducted an internal safety audit.
"Connecticut basically opened our eyes of let's become compliance, let's recheck our protocols, recheck the procedures. Are we really has safe as we think we are? We have definitely found some differences when we started doing our in-house audit. Since then we've been beefing up some of those procedures and protocol," said Wood.
He said it forced the district to take on security measures like locking doors, giving faculty and students access with swipe cards, keys or codes, a phone system to open the doors, and even building a fence to enclose the campuses. However, the district will not go into many details because of security purposes.
"We have changed our protocol in that every door will be locked. And what we're trying to do is layers, we're trying to create the layers. I don't want to go into the different layers for security reasons, but the more layers you can create the more secure you're going to be in case of an incident," said Wood.
Along with all of that, the district held a community meeting the Thursday following the Sandy Hook shooting. They addressed parents and the community's concerns and listened to their suggestions on added security.
"We feel the need to be as transparent as we can, we want the community to feel safe when they drop their children off," said Wood. "We felt like after this the awareness was heightened. The want and the need from the community to feel more safe was there and so we pursued that. We went the liaison officer route just because of what they can offer to the district more so than just somebody on campus with a gun."
Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013 the school board voted unanimously to hire a Potter County Sheriff's deputy to fill that position. It was a fast hiring turn around. With interviews being conducted that Friday, and that person starting Monday, Feb. 4, 2013.
The new liaison officer will focus and help with security on all three campuses: the elementary, middle and high school. However, he'll be housed mostly at the high school.
"It's always nice to know that you have that support. It may not be needed everyday, but it's nice to know if it ever we do need it then its going to be there," said Bushland High School Principal Rick Davis.
Parents and even school board members have stressed their desire for a liaison officer for all three campuses. However, Don Wood said he'll use the remainder of the school year to review the liaison officer's effectiveness and the school board will make further decisions from there.
Potter County Sheriff Brian Thomas said the position only maintains the security he initiated immediately after the events in Connecticut.
"We wanted someone on every campus, every day, not at the same time just randomly going in and checking things out make sure everything is good," said Sheriff Thomas. "It also gives the officer a chance to walk the hall, heaven forbid if something were to happen, that officer is going to be able to look around and be like, ok I know where room 404 is at, I go this way."
Bushland ISD is one of many in the region that are also doing safety drills in case of an in-house shooter.
"We do actually involve the sheriff's department in this and it's almost real life when it happens they are aware of it, they come in, they act, they almost present themselves as a danger and want in these doors and we evaluate how teachers react to those types of things," said Wood. "We know that if there's any major incident that happens at a school that traffic will be a nightmare to manage. How are you going to manage traffic when it gets out in the public that something may be happening and here comes all the parents to get their child, but yet we may need they emergency vehicles to be able to come in and help us, there's that congestion that's formed."
So this is one effect Sandy Hook had in many communities across the nation, making them work together to prepare for those scenarios.
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