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GROOM, Texas (KVII) — Following the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas which left 19 children and two teachers dead, school districts are increasing security and reassessing safety by reviewing procedures aimed at keeping students and staff safe.
The Groom Independent School District is applying for grants to pay for a number of upgrades mandated by the state after an audit turned up mandates needing to be met.
“You do your best to try and keep everybody safe,” said Jay Lamb, superintendent of Groom ISD.
Upgrading campus security is a needed investment for today and the future. Lamb tells ABC 7 News, despite expanding the campus and adding new features the district is being required to invest in taller fencing and further hardening campus safety features.
“It’s not tall enough by the new standards that are coming out so there will have to be some adjustments made here,” said Lamb. “We’re going to reinforce some windows around doors working on our camera system to make sure we have a good view of every place going on.”
“If you take a look at where other schools have been compromised a lot of them are in rural settings,” said Tony Dodson, principal at Groom High School. “Just because we’re out in the country doesn’t mean we’re not susceptible to danger and to possible bad things happening.”
Funding from the state is coming in the form of safety grants.
“The state has stepped up and there’s a new grant on the table that for us is about $200,000 which will help with most of what we have to do so the state is stepping up to the trough and paying for some of the upgrades,” said Lamb.
After having a mandatory intruder audit conducted by the state of Texas in the fall Groom ISD is taking its safety precautions to another level they’re investing in what is called the Raptor and that’s going to inform teachers or adults on the campus of potential danger.
“This will tie to their network computers it will also tie to their cellular devices so if something were to happen they know about it and it also enables our employees to initiate an emergency if they see something,” said Lamb.
A partial grant is covering most of the expenses for the first year of the Raptor system and from there it will be an annual expense the district will have to cover after the first year.
