School safety bill awaits hearing in House committee

A bill has passed in the Texas Senate that would give the San Marcos-based Texas School Safety Center (TSSC) a larger role in helping school districts plan for emergencies and security threats.

Sen. Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood), whose district includes Santa Fe, the site of a school shooting in 2018, filed Senate Bill 11. The bill is set for a public hearing in the House’s Public Education Committee on May 7.

A statement of intent for the bill notes that SB 11 “seeks to revise and expand the duties of school districts, open-enrollment charter schools, the Texas Education Agency, and the Texas School Safety Center regarding multihazard emergency operations plans and other school safety measures.” The bill also proposes a grant program for loan repayment for school counselors and licensed specialists in school psychology. The bill “amends current law relating to policies, procedures, and measures for school safety and mental health promotion in public schools.”

The bill would require school districts to coordinate and file multi-hazard disaster response plans with the TSSC, which is located on the Texas State University campus. The plans would have to address prevention, preparedness and recovery.

“It’s really sort of expanded the scope of work of the Texas School Safety Center as well as created more responsibility for school districts to make sure they’re implementing best practices,” said Kathy Martinez Prather, director of the TSSC. “... I think that at the end of the day, it’s about ensuring that school districts are doing what they need to do to prevent, respond and recover from an incident in the most effective way possible.

The bill also gives the TSSC more responsibility as a resource for school districts when it comes to reviewing and verifying their plans.

Dispatcher Bianca Salas and San Marcos Police Department K-9 Officer Donald Lee walk through zone one together checking that teachers and students are following protocol during the SRP Drill at San Marcos High School.

Prather said the TSSC was created in 1999, right around the time of the Columbine school shooting. The state’s education code gives the center its role as a clearinghouse for the state when it comes to school safety issues.

“Everything that we do – from training to developing resources – we make sure is informed by best practices.”

Beyond providing trainings for active shooter situations, Prather said, the center provides an increased awareness of violence in schools and helps districts look for warning signs to prevent school shootings from happening in the first place. She noted that the language in SB 11 requires districts to have threat assessment teams in place.

The TSSC also helps districts learn how to recover from a violent incident.

“We know that shootings are still rare events, but they have a high impact when they do occur,” she said. “... It’s really important that schools, especially the districts, have an understanding of what that recovery process looks like.”

Prather noted that the Santa Fe school district is in the recovery process right now.

“Short term, long term – it’s going to be a while,” she said.