PEOPLE
2023 EDUCATION EDITION
Kathy Martinez-Prather Executive director of the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University
BREAKING DOWN HOUSE BILL 3
Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 3 into law June 14, which will be eective Sept. 1. The bill gives the state more oversight of districts’ safety and security measures.
BY DAVE MANNING
Kathy Martinez-Prather is the executive director of the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University, which seeks to ensure the health, safety and security of all Texas communities and schools. The center oers subject matter expertise, research and support for school districts across the state. In light of the recent passage of House Bill 3, which requires schools to have armed personnel on all campuses, Community Impact interviewed Martinez- Prather to see what measures, including the latest legislative acts, are being implemented to keep schools secure. This interview has been edited for length, style and clarity.
WHAT’S IN THE BILL?
1 At least one armed o cer must be on each public school campus during school hours. 2 School district employees who regularly interact with students must have mental health training. 3 Districts must create procedures for students to report concerning behavior by other students. 4 A child’s discipline record and threat assessments will be required to transfer with them between schools. 5 Parents will be notied via text or email about violent activity investigations on their child’s campus. 6 Districts failing to meet safety infrastructure standards must reallocate bond funds to x the issues.
COURTESY TEXAS SCHOOL SAFETY CENTER
be a law enforcement intervention. But at the end of the day, we want to make sure that student is getting connected with mental health, campus [and] district administrators, everybody—triaging, if you will, this situation from a dierent perspec- tive—ultimately to determine what is the best intervention to make sure that this individual gets o a pathway to violence. And I think that often, the idea is we’re going to implement punitive measures. WHAT ARE SOME LESS OBVI OUS POTENTIAL THREATS TO SCHOOL SAFETY? If we notice that little Jimmy used to be a very outgoing student but has become very reclusive; he’s not talkative; we’ve seen a change in him, in his hygiene, in his demeanor, his attitude—what is going on with this kid now? There hasn’t been a threat made, but this is an opportunity to intervene right now and gure out what’s going on. Because it could be that this individual is experiencing suicidal ideation, and we need to intervene right now. That’s part of what the threat assessment team is charged to do, and that’s what our training that we provide across the state focuses on.
HAS THE WAY SCHOOL DIS TRICTS APPROACH SAFETY RECENTLY CHANGED? In 2019, after the Santa Fe High School shooting, Texas passed legislation that requires every district in the state of Texas to ensure that every campus has access to a school behavioral threat assessment team. When you think about threat assessment, we often think we’re waiting for someone to make a threat and we act, and part of that process is determining, “Is this threat credible, or is it not credible?” If it’s credible, the next step is making sure we have a group of multidisciplinary folks because of the requirement in laws. HOW IMPORTANT ARE ACTIVE SHOOTER DRILLS? We don’t want to create more trauma, but there is utility to drilling and exercising. It’s got to be age appropriate. And what we want our students and our sta to understand is creating that muscle memory, of being second nature, of what we do when we go into these situations.
By law, every school district is required to conduct a certain amount of drills with a certain amount of frequency. We don’t call them “active shooter” drills—the terminology that we use is “lockdown” drills, and in them we’re focusing on turning the lights o, locking the door, [staying] out of sight. WHAT IMPACT WILL HOUSE BILL 3 HAVE ON SCHOOLS? The law requires to the greatest extent practicable that threat assessment teams encompass various areas of expertise—law enforcement being one of them [or someone with a] mental health background. And so the idea here as part of the evidence-based approach to threat assessment is making sure you have a multidisciplinary group of folks. WHAT ARE SOME ADDITIONAL SOLUTIONS THAT COULD PREVENT FUTURE SCHOOL SHOOTINGS? Sometimes [a student] brings a weapon to school; there’s going to
HOW IS IT FUNDED?
28-cent increase in the per-student safety allotment $15,000 per campus annually for security expenses = +
$718.65K in additional funding for Humble ISD*
SOURCES: HUMBLE ISD, TEXAS LEGISLATURE ONLINE COMMUNITY IMPACT *ESTIMATES CALCULATED BASED ON 202223 SCHOOL YEAR DATA
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LAKE HOUSTON HUMBLE KINGWOOD EDITION • AUGUST 2023
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