Community members push for school security, safety measures

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By Anna Noel

Yorktown News-View

The regular meeting of the YISD school board took place on Monday, June 13, at 7:30 p.m. Public comments were up first, and there were two speakers, Gene Henry and Carolyn Morehead. Henry spoke first.

“Our schools need security. Just a while back, we had a high school graduation, and attendees were alarmed by multiple open doors and no law enforcement, not long after the latest Texas school shooting. This is apathy; reactive measures should be in place already at the schools, but those can be breached. The police doesn’t surround schools each and every day, and besides, they are not bodyguards. They respond, we hope, when a crime is reported, but the police are not the first responders. Those in charge of defending the children and themselves are the teachers and staff. They are the first responders, whether they like it or not.”

Next was Carolyn Morehead.

“After sitting in these school board meetings for the last nine months and hearing what parents and grandparents and taxpayers are saying, I’ve come to the conclusion that many in the community have lost faith with the school district. With the awareness of Achieve3000 being taught in school, the lack of an in-house English teacher in the high school, science teacher in the junior high, the excessive spending plan on the baseball fields and, most recently, the arrest of a high school student for sexual misconduct with a junior high student, many are in outrage with the school district, and these are just a few of the things we know about. And now we have the tragedy of Uvalde."

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