MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas (KXXV) — As local students walk back through school doors, Central Texas districts have safety at the top of their minds, and they are working to keep students safe this year.
In November 2023, Governor Abbott instructed every school district to establish a safety and security committee — a few weeks ago, a team of La Vega ISD district officials met for their first meeting of the year.
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"It’s difficult to educate them if they don’t feel safe,” said Chris Borland with La Vega ISD.
In November 2023, Governor Abbott instructed every school district to establish a safety and security committee — Borland believes the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde keeps districts talking about school safety.
"We know that’s tragic and something that we want to prevent — something that we want to be able to respond to in a better way than what happened down there," Borland said.
La Vega ISD has 17 Guardian Marshalls through the district, security cameras, metal detectors, and protective bullet resistant type film on windows — Waco ISD shares similar tactics.
"You have to either have a key card or you get buzzed in," said Executive Director for Student Services, Suzanne Hamilton.
Double entry at entrances is another way Waco ISD is keeping students safe — they also have doors locked anytime students are in class, and six and eight-foot fencing.
"All of our campuses have fencing around them to make sure we have a secure areas of kids that are outside," Hamilton said.
Hamilton says Waco ISD has safety and security meetings for years, where they include county officials, the police and fire department, as well as emergency management.
"It’s really just about that awareness and knowing you know who’s on your campus all the time, making sure that even going back to just like a tornado drill or something, if it’s kids in the bathroom when it goes off, do they know what to do?", she said.
One way that parents can help out, is by paying attention to their children.
"They’re bringing kids in and out to campuses, just keeping an eye out and reporting things, if you know, saying, if they hear something from their children that you know doesn’t sound quite right, making sure hat it gets to the proper ears so that we can take action," Borland said.
The safety and security committee is required to meet at least once during each semester, and at least once during the summer.
Two parents or guardians of students enrolled in the district are also required to be a part of the committee.
