Subscribe Love

Action ordered to address safety at schools

by | Mar 1, 2018 | Opinion

By Ed Sterling,

Member services director for the Texas Press Association.

 

Gov. Greg Abbott on Feb. 21 sent a letter to Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath ordering immediate action to ensure the safety of children in Texas schools following the multi-fatality shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school on Feb. 14.

Abbott listed steps for Morath and other state education leaders to take to respond to and prevent such tragedies, including:

— Catalog and share all available information from the Texas School Safety Center on school safety programs and distribute this information to all school districts, charter schools and education service centers across the state;

— Ensure that all Texas public schools have completed their statutorily required school safety audits and have submitted confirmation of these audits to the Texas School Safety Center;

— Publish on the Texas Education Agency website and via agency press release a list of any school districts that have not completed the statutory requirements referenced in point two above within 45 days; and

— Work with the Texas School Safety Center, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the governor’s office to draft recommendations to the Texas Legislature on changes to the school safety architecture of our state.

“All of Texas grieves the tragedy that occurred in Parkland last week. As governor, I take seriously the safety of all Texas residents, and as an American, I mourn the loss of 17 Floridians in a cruel and senseless act of violence. Immediate steps must be taken to keep our students and communities safe, with the understanding that more will be expected in the future,” Abbott said.

State laws allow marshals

Acknowledgement of the threat of school shootings came years ago in the form of House Bill 1009, a law passed by the 83rd Texas Legislature in 2013.

The law allows public school districts and open enrollment charter schools to appoint school marshals.

In 2015, the 84th Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 386, to include public two-year junior colleges in the list of institutions that can appoint school marshals.

And, in 2017, the 85th Texas Legislature passed House Bill 867, a law that allows private schools to appoint school marshals.

According to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, “The sole purpose of a school marshal is to prevent the act of murder or serious bodily injury on school premises and act only as defined by the written regulations adopted by the school board/governing body.”

Abbott spares prison inmate

Shortly before state prison inmate Thomas Bartlett Whitaker, 38, was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Feb. 22, Gov. Abbott signed a proclamation commuting the death sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Abbott, in making the proclamation, agreed with a recommendation by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Whitaker was convicted and sentenced in 2008 for conspiring to kill his parents and brother, but he did not shoot the gun that caused the murders of his mother and brother.

DPS drone program debuts

The Texas Department of Public Safety on Feb. 15 announced the launch of its “unmanned aerial systems” program.

Small, unmanned aerial vehicles, generically referred to as “drones” will be used for a variety of public safety missions across Texas, including flight missions related to officer safety, search and rescue, disaster support, aerial observation support, crash reconstruction, crime scene photography and communication tower inspections.

So far, the DPS said, the program’s fleet includes 17 unmanned aerial systems costing the state an estimated $70,000 and paid for with existing funding, grant funding or seized funds.

AG pursues elder fraud

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Feb. 23 announced that his office joined the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Association of Attorneys General in “the largest coordinated sweep of elder fraud cases in history.”

The multi-state actions charged a variety of fraud schemes, ranging from mass mailing, telemarketing and investment frauds to individual incidences of identity theft and theft by guardians.

“Anyone can be a victim of fraud, but senior citizens are targeted more often by scammers seeking to exploit someone for a quick buck,” Paxton said. “Today’s action is one of many steps my office has taken in the fight to protecting elderly Texans whose financial well-being is compromised by nefarious characters,” he added.

Joining Texas in the coalition are the U.S. Department of Justice, Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Oregon and South Dakota.

For more stories like this subscribe to the print or e-edition.

Subscribe Love

0 Comments

Related News

Path of progress: radio to TV

Path of progress: radio to TV

Columnist John Moore still enjoys the old radio and TV shows, even though they went off the air decades ago. Courtesy John Moore My father used to talk about radio programs a lot. The Lone Ranger. Lum and Abner. Amos and Andy. Edgar Bergen. People tend to talk about...

read more
Raking it in

Raking it in

 I hate pine needles. Growing up in Arkansas will do that to you. Pine trees are everywhere in Ashdown, Arkansas. They are pretty much everywhere throughout the Natural State.  Pine trees brought the paper mills, which brought the paper mill employees, which...

read more
Halloween season highlights

Halloween season highlights

There’s something about being scared. Some kids claim they don’t like it, but do. While a handful of other kids claim they don’t like it, and really don’t. I was the former. My sister was the latter. In the small, redbrick house on Beech Street in Ashdown, Arkansas,...

read more
John Wayne: Movie star superhero

John Wayne: Movie star superhero

Columnist John Moore believes that you haven't been immortalized properly until you've been painted on black velvet. Like this John Wayne rendering that's available on eBay from Lindy1017. Courtesy eBay Lindy1017 You’d think that John Wayne said the word ‘pilgrim’ a...

read more
Our stories shape the stories that matter most

Our stories shape the stories that matter most

It seems like about every time I am out in the public, no matter what the occasion, once someone realizes I own the local paper they seem anxious to tell me something.  And in more cases than not, it is how something someone has read impacts their lives. For...

read more
2024 trip prices far from magical

2024 trip prices far from magical

Photo by Ricardo Guzman, Pixabay As we left Ashdown, Arkansas, in my mom’s 1971 Buick Electra 225 Limited, my mom turned to my dad and asked, “Jimmy, are you sure we have enough money?” He responded, “Well, Mary. If four hundred dollars isn’t enough to spend two weeks...

read more
Iceboxes are cool

Iceboxes are cool

Columnist John Moore has an ice box that's been in his family for a long time. One that still works if he ever needs it. Courtesy John Moore The fridge. Frigerator. Some even called it, “The Frigidaire.” A few decades ago it had many names. Growing up, my family...

read more
The screening process

The screening process

Movies were betterin a theater. A theater filled with people. Such was the case before the internet. Before HBO. Before people holed up in their living rooms and away from their neighbors and friends. A time when pay-per-view meant you bought a ticket to watch a...

read more
Scouting for knowledge

Scouting for knowledge

John Moore’s genuine Scouting pocketknife. Courtesy John Moore I learned a lot from Scouting. Started as a Cub Scout, then joined Webelos, then the Boy Scouts.  Girls and making money took priority over my time around age 14, so I never made Eagle Scout. But what...

read more
The Pioneer Skillet

The Pioneer Skillet

Cast iron skillet used for generations by John Moore’s family that was featured in The Pioneer Woman Magazine. Courtesy John Moore. My momma’s skillet and this columnist are featured in the fall 2017 issue of The Pioneer Woman Magazine. Well, it used to be my momma’s...

read more
Subscribe Love