On June 1, about one week after the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Gov. Greg Abbott tasked the Texas School Safety Center with assessing building access procedures at school districts statewide, among other safety improvements.
Out of three SISD buildings that were audited by the TXSSC, auditors identified two issues each at two campuses, said Lt. David Borchardt of the SISD Police Department on Oct. 4.
“The Texas School Safety Center ... has taken the position that their ultimate goal is to serve as a second set of eyes ... to try to help districts identify things that we would not be able to see,” Borchardt said.
Details about the findings were presented to trustees in closed session Oct. 4 due to “operational security reasons,” Borchardt said. SISD is scheduled to have other buildings audited this month, according to Superintendent Lupita Hinojosa. District leaders are not told how many buildings or which ones will be audited.
“This intruder detection audit is meant to ... survey our schools to ensure that they are safe for our students,” Hinojosa said.
The door audits are performed in two phases, Borchardt said. In the first phase, the auditor attempts to open a door on campus and enter the school through it. If they are able to open the door, the tester walks through the school to the main office, noting whether staff challenge them once they walk inside, Borchardt said.
“If unable to enter, [the auditor] will move on,” Borchardt said. “They don't try to bang on the door, jimmy the door, try to trick somebody into opening the door; they're simply checking to see if [the doors] are accessible or not.”
During phase two, the auditor meets with the principals to assess all campus doors and to review documentation of the campus’s weekly door checks.
“Should an area for improvement be identified, the district is required ... to take certain actions,” Borchardt said. “These include training, obviously, enhancements or mitigations of the problem and notification to the public, which we're doing here this evening.”
Since 1970, 177 shooting incidents have occurred at K-12 schools in Texas with nearly 25% taking place in the Greater Houston area. Data also shows 38 of those Texas incidents happened between January 2020 and June 2022—the most of any decade prior.
Campus safety administrators are assigned to each SISD campus, Hinojosa said, and this person supervises safety for their campus.
“They meet regularly with our police department to ensure that ... they're trained, but it is their responsibility to ensure that all of the points that are being audited are covered, and it is our responsibility to ensure the safety of our students in our building,” Hinojosa said.
Hannah Brol contributed to this report.
