Clear Creek ISD security panel opts against metal detectors, armed teachers
League City TX July 15 2018 Clear Creek ISD’s school safety committee has advised against purchasing metal detectors and arming teachers, instead opting to back the hiring of 15 additional police officers and 15 student support counselors, according to preliminary recommendations.
The committee will host a public meeting at 6 p.m. on July 16 to receive community feedback on the recommendations before presenting its final list to the district’s board of trustees. It will be held at Clear Springs High School, 501 Palomino Lane, in League City.
The Southeast Houston-area district shares a southern border with Santa Fe ISD, where a 17-year-old gunman opened fire in the district’s sole high school, killing 10 and wounding 13.
Since the shooting, school districts across the Houston area have formed groups composed of parents, staff, security officials and others to discuss ways to prevent campus violence. Santa Fe ISD’s own security committee is to finalize a series of recommendations at a closed meeting Thursday and will present them to that district’s board of trustees at a special meeting on Monday.
In Clear Creek, the committee’s preliminary recommendations would increase the number of school liaison officers at each high school from two to three, and at each intermediate school from one to two. The committee also recommended establishing or expanding community policing and outreach programs such as DARE and Watch D.O.G.S. in elementary schools.
Hiring 15 additional student-support counselors would help the district decrease its counselor-to- student ratio from one counselor for every 496 students to a ratio of one per 450 students, the state average.
The recommendations also called for ensuring that classroom doors can be locked from both sides, limiting the number of uncontrolled access points, replacing older cameras, installing more panic buttons, adding bullet-resistant film to some windows and developing individual site plans for each campus.
In terms of preparation, the committee called for schools to hold one lockdown and one “holding” drill each semester, held at random times throughout the school day. Substitutes should be trained in emergency protocols and required to demonstrate familiarity with the procedures annually. Committee members agreed the district should develop training information for parents in multiple languages and train all staff on basic lifesaving techniques every two years. School leaders should also address conflicting directions between a fire drill and lockdown drill so that students and staff know what to do in the event of a fire alarm during a lockdown, the committee wrote.
Other recommendations include offering optional lifesaving training courses to students; creating an emergency app and website to expedite communications in an emergency; and expanding mental health first-aid training offerings to staff, students, substitutes and parents.
