Texas has the tools to make schools safer from mass shootings. Here’s where we should start

There is no shortage of ideas to make Texas schools safer.

After the Santa Fe school shooting in 2018, lawmakers produced an extensive plan and later passed 17 laws, with $339 million allocated to implement them.

And yet, there hasn’t been enough manpower or urgency to do so. After the Uvalde slaughter, the primary focus has been on new gun laws. But there’s plenty Texas can do right now to try to prevent the next tragedy.

As updated in 2019, Gov. Greg Abbott’s “Improving School Safety in Texas” plan lists 40 recommendations in three categories: preventing threats in advance, ways to make schools safer, and state agencies’ responses.

Preventing threats makes common sense but is difficult to do. Still, we found some specific areas of improvement that could prevent another Uvalde, if precisely implemented.

TEACHER TRAINING

Educators have a lot on their plates, and they already receive several mandatory preventative trainings about topics such as school bullying, suicide and first aid. Still, it’s clear we need more robust mental health training.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission collaborated with education service centers and other education and mental health agencies to create the Mental Health First Aid training. In 2018 about 13,000 school personnel participated in this training, but only 10,000 did in 2019. There are about 400,000 school employees in Texas, so we have yet to train even 10 percent.

Two laws on the books provide for teachers to receive this training. However, while the Texas Education Agency is required to promote the training on its website, teachers are not required to take it. The task seems daunting, if not, impossible. But it is possible. As of 2019, all 700 of the Wylie ISD staff had taken this training, so it is feasible.

At Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, teachers are required to take a handful of trainings, but the only classes that touch mental health issues are bullying prevention and suicide awareness. Staff are not required to do the Mental Health First Aid training, nor was it offered within two hours’ drive.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just signed a bill to require similar training and have the state review school safety compliance in districts. Abbott has directed the Texas School Safety Center to begin immediately conducting comprehensive school safety reviews to make sure Texas public schools are following the appropriate procedures to maximize school safety.

This is a start. Texas should require the training, pay for it, and offer it both in person and online. The Texas School Safety Center then should follow up to make sure everyone has done this.

A Texas law requires school districts to establish a threat assessment team on each campus to evaluate risks and threats in schools. Uvalde schools had a security guard and police officers but so far it appears they were either unavailable when needed or unable to do what was necessary to save students. Did the district have a threat assessment team? Do others? State oversight must ensure this happens.

Abbott has also instructed the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training programs to provide training to all school districts across the state, prioritizing school-based law enforcement. The Texas School Safety Center should make sure this has been completed across all schools, too.

STUDENT INTERVENTION

The Texas Tech Health Sciences Center’s Telemedicine Intervention Triage and Referral “is a model for identifying students at risk for committing school violence and intervening with those students before acts of violence occur.”

It was specifically geared to increase access to telemedicine services in rural Texas schools and works in tandem with SB 11, which established the Texas Mental Health Care Consortium with $99 million in funding. The Consortium expanded telemedicine programs to identify and assess behavioral health needs, particularly for at-risk children or adolescents.

The program is effective when used. The Tech center told the House in 2018 that between 2013 and 2017, 25 students who were homicidal and suicidal were removed from schools.

As helpful as this is, questions abound: Do teachers know about the program and how to access it? In four years, with millions of dollars at its disposal, a small number of students were apprehended. Why isn’t this program used more widely, especially given its robust funds?

SOCIAL MEDIA

We know now the Uvalde shooter posted criminal behavior on his Instagram and announced both criminal deeds and intent on Facebook. Schools have tools to track students’ social media that are to alert them when students make specific threats or demonstrate ghoulish behavior.

In addition, there are seven Fusion Centers in Texas which coordinate with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to identify, prevent, investigate, and respond to criminal and terrorist acts. These centers have used predictive information to apprehend people who pose possible threats to schools.

The shooter was no longer a student at Uvalde schools, but monitoring social media outlets through software for potential criminal behavior seems like a helpful tool.

None of these suggested remedies could guarantee that school violence will be prevented. But if these had been implemented as designed, it’s possible the Uvalde shooter could have been apprehended based on his social media threats and previous behavior in school alone.

Preventing school shootings will never be foolproof, but each of these steps can reduce the likelihood of more mass killings. Bolstering what’s already available is a good place to start.

This story was originally published June 10, 2022 at 5:03 AM.