Keeping children safe is one of the most important jobs schools have.
Schools across Texas are working to ensure the students are safe, even here in the Permian Basin.
"The 86th Texas legislature last year passed a senate bill in the wake of so many school shootings that have been happening across the nation, especially Santa Fe here in Texas. And so Senate Bill 11 really aims to make very clear what schools and open enrollment charters should be doing in planning for safety and security issues," said Brian Clason, Program Manager for Instruction and Curriculum at the Texas School Safety Center.
"So Senate Bill 11 really aims to make very clear what schools and open enrollment charters should be doing in planning for safety and security issues. How you collaborate with community partners and how you collect that data and report it to us at the Texas School Safety Center and also the state of Texas."
But the new, documented language doesn’t just cover mass shootings..
“It could be anything, it could be a tornado, flooding, power outage it could even be a severe weather storm that last several days,” said Clason.
It even covers recent talk on what to do in the event the Coronavirus were to spread locally.
“Are we going to have teachers not be able to show up because they’re sick, are students not going to be able to show up? Is the virus going to mutate? You know things like that we just need to stay in touch with first responders, CDC, local doctors to know how we can provide a safe environment and clean environment for the kids,” said Clason.
Keeping everyone who can help locally accountable and on the same page..
“If you listen to our presenter today, he talks about are you engaging with police, EMT, local businesses, mental health agencies... mental health is a big piece of Senate Bill 11 as well," said Clason.
"I think in years past I may have a handshake agreement as a principal with local firefighters or a local police chief. But when an emergency happens, we don’t have anything written down that says this is exactly how we respond,” said Clason.
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