The county’s first responders and school officials gathered on August 7 to share their knowledge and questions about preparations for any armed attacks at campuses. Emergency Management Coordinator Billy Jordan challenged the group to dig in on multi-agency relationship building in order to identify issues that could cost lives.
Representatives from Westhoff, Yorktown, Nordheim, Cuero, Meyersville and Yoakum schools, law enforcement and fire/ EMS gathered to set up plans for multi-agency responses.
“We say armed attackers rather than active shooters,” TDEM District Chief Ernesto Paiz said, “because it can be a pen, a pencil, a baseball bat and anything else.” Sheriff Carl Bowen, who is required by law to facilitate two meetings a year of school safety officials, reviewed the topics from the first meeting and turned the meeting over to Jordan to discuss multi-agency coordination.
Jordan impressed upon the group that he could require first responders to show up for meetings, but unless they really took to heart the importance of building relationships and preparing for the worst, they might not fix the issues that could endanger lives.
He showed various slides of memorials and students as well as the infamous view of various law enforcement agencies in the hallway of the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde while an armed shooter actively killed students and teachers.
Sheriff Bowen said the state legislative report on the Uvalde shooting was available and many lessons could be learned from reading it.
The first topic of discussion was compatibility of surveillance systems. Various school districts weighed in on their capabilities and the general consensus was that purchasing new systems was not feasible for most districts.
One suggestion was giving law enforcement remote access to the school’s cameras. The sheriff said if they had to learn five different systems until compatible systems could be purchased, that’s what his team would do.
The most important task laid out by Jordan and his TDEM supervisor was the “table-top” meetings between school officials and first responders.
Each school district has an active threat plan, Jordan said. It’s his job to facilitate first responders learning and troubleshooting the school’s plan. “What communication is going to look like, etc.”
“Plans are great,” Jordan said. “Everybody’s got plans that are mandatory, but it's getting to that table and seeing how those plans overlap and seeing if we have any gaps anywhere between them.”
Jordan said the preparedness goal is to have live, active-threat drills every two years, where plans can be tested for weak spots.
Paiz said that it takes about a year’s worth of table-top meetings to prepare for a safe live drill. He suggested that schools start with only one jurisdiction, such as their most immediate law enforcement. The next meeting another agency, such as fire/ EMS, is added.
With each table-top meeting a new stakeholder joins the planning. With each meeting, issues get identified and changes are made in the plans.
Cuero Superintendent Micah Dyer said he is always okay with law enforcement using the district’s schools for live drills. “That way they learn our campus, and it’s not new if the time comes,” he said. “I bet any superintendent in here would welcome live drills.”
The meeting ended with many groups getting together to follow up on discussion.
