Amid several new laws aimed at boosting school security across Texas, the Attorney General’s Office released a new advisory for district officials and parents alike.
Attorney General Ken Paxton and his team provided the guidance to shed light on recent legislative changes affecting taxpayer-funded districts.
While noting that school officials have the “most sacred duty” of ensuring “student safety and wellbeing,” the advisory was primarily directed at students’ parents.
“Parents deserve to know what state law requires of their school district so that they can hold school boards and administrators accountable and better understand how districts should prepare for a worst-case scenario,” explained Paxton in a statement. “Although no amount of preparedness can guarantee against all threats, parental engagement and involvement is critical for keeping schools safe.”
As extensively covered by The Dallas Express, the safety of Texas children while at school has been a significant concern since the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, the fallout of which is still ongoing. While several districts enacted their own protocols in response, such as Dallas ISD’s clear backpack policy, state lawmakers mandated the presence of an armed peace officer on all public school campuses, among other new rules.
Another new law requires that every classroom have a silent panic alarm that will alert first responders of any emergency. To facilitate efficient emergency responses, school districts must provide maps of their campuses to the Texas Department of Public Safety and other relevant local agencies.
Moreover, the advisory explains that each school district must have a “multihazard emergency operations plan” that will be included in its safety and security audit conducted every three years. Not only must this plan establish a clear chain of command during an emergency, but it must also include a procedure for immediately notifying students’ parents. Staff training and student drills on this plan are also required.
Certain school officials, as the advisory explains, must also be trained to better recognize and support students who may pose a school safety threat due to a mental health or substance use issue.
Learning to best respond to such issues is critical, as demonstrated earlier this year in Mesquite. A 16-year-old student allegedly brought a gun to Pioneer Technology & Arts Academy with the intention of hurting others, as covered by The Dallas Express. The school principal persuaded him to go into an office, where he kept him until law enforcement arrived.
In the same vein, Paxton has opened up training resources for school security officers via the Law Enforcement Division of the Office of the Attorney General, as announced in the advisory. This would entail using a virtual training simulator to prepare them for real-life scenarios.
The advisory also clarified the new rule of employing an armed peace officer at each school campus. As previously covered by The Dallas Express, some school districts struggled to comply when the law came into effect last September due to a limited hiring pool and financial constraints. For instance, Dallas ISD, which has a $2.5 billion budget, was still somehow short by 167 security guards when the 2023-2024 term began.
With these issues in mind, the advisory stressed the existence of several alternatives to an armed peace officer, such as the school marshal or guardian programs. These would allow district employees to carry weapons on campus upon completing a training program from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.
Finally, the advisory explained that the new rules are compulsory and any deviations can be reported to the Texas Education Agency via an online general complaint form.
