File: A Fort Bend ISD police vehicle

With August 10 approaching fast, and in the wake of the Uvalde tragedy, Fort Bend ISD officials have implemented some new measures to combat potential security breaches and keep children safe at school.

FBISD Police Chief David Rider explained a number of security upgrades implemented over the summer in direct response to the Uvalde shooting, as well as the measures put in place by FBISD’s 2014 Safety and Security Master Plan.

The Texas Education Agency introduced new requirements after Uvalde to "collectively improve the level of safety at all Texas public schools."

The requirements include drills and training for students and staff. FBISD children will have four major safety drills within the first 10 days of school, said Rider. 

All campus staff, including substitutes, must receive training on campus safety procedures, the TEA said.

“We did an overall training regarding safety and security with our campus administrators today,”said Bart Roseburg, coordinator of emergency management. “We’re working through a process to complete all of that training.”

The TEA also requires school districts to conduct Exterior Door Safety Audits. Schools must have double doors with a sturdy metal beam, reinforced doorframes, automatic door closing devices, automatic door locks, emergency opening devices and more.

At Robb Elementary School, an exterior door was not locked, making it possible for the shooter to get into the building. 

The police department spent the summer checking exterior doors in the school district, said Roseburg.

“If there are any issues, we're working with our facilities department to take corrective action on the doors,” Roseburg said.

Of the 28 initiatives in FBISD’s plan, 22 are in place, Rider said during Monday’s school board meeting.  

Five of the 28 initiatives are under evaluation, and one, issuing IDs to students, is incomplete due to logistics issues caused by COVID-19.

In 2018, the district put in safety vestibules at the entrances of school buildings. Equipped with locked doors and window film, these give administrators control over who has access to the school. 

Over 6,000 IP cameras have been installed across the school district.

“If we use the safety initiatives that we have in place right now today, we stand a much better chance of keeping our kids and teachers safe so that our law enforcement can respond and engage the person in the hallway instead of in the classroom,” Rider said. “When you prop open a door, all the money we spent on card access systems is out the window.”

The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement requires every officer in Texas to undergo 40 hours of training every two years.

“We quadrupled the minimum number of training hours our licensing agency says we have to have,” said Rider. “We have mandatory school-based law enforcement training and active shooter response training.”

In November 2021, 89 police officers from eight different agencies went through the active shooting training, Rider said.

Rider said that layered security is the best strategy.

“Safety and security is like a jigsaw puzzle,” he said. “A piece is important, but it doesn't give you the full picture. You must put all the pieces in the right place before you can begin to see the full picture.”

The police department has a standardized campus threat assessment team to investigate any threats made against a school.

“If a student makes a threat, the team ask them questions,” Rider said. “And if it's a transient threat, meaning it was a joke and wasn't serious, then it stays at that at that level. But if we think it's a substantive threat, or if it's something that we don't consider a joke, then we don't treat it as a joke-- then we’re going to file charges.”

Additionally, school staff includes a child psychologist, two licensed professional counselors, and officers trained in crisis intervention.

“A lot of kids that make threats need other resources than just a police officer,” said Rider. “If a middle school student makes a threat, we’ll follow them through their high school career. We don’t want them to feel like they’re neglected, or we don’t care as a district. Then they’re not as likely to have the urge to commit some type of violence.”

FBISD Police Department officers are posted to every high school and middle school, and an officer is assigned to every feeder pattern to patrol the elementary schools in the feeder pattern.

Beefing up police presence at schools is not a solution, Rider said.

“(In Uvalde) it’s not that they didn’t have a police officer stationed at the elementary,” said Rider. “The issue, it appears, is that once they got into the building, they didn’t follow through with the training.”

Rider said that due to a nationwide shortage of police officers, the school district is unable give every elementary school its own officer.  

“I’m going to say some tough things—we can’t fill 54 positions; we don’t have enough officers or new applicants” Rider said. “Two years ago, if we advertised for a position, we got a hundred applicants. We had 18 applicants for our last position.”

Rider and several other officers are certified instructors for Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE) training, which is available to the entire community.

“We are committed to making sure that all our students are safe,” said Rider, visibly emotional. “Because our students aren’t Sugar Land residents or Missouri City residents. Our students are Fort Bend County residents. We all have a stake in this.”

Juhi Varma is a reporter for the Houston Chronicle. She primarily covers Fort Bend County.

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