Police Chief: Officers on high alert
Children have returned to school for the first time since the deadly shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. So, how are Houston area schools reacting to the tragedy? And what steps are officials taking to make sure your kids are safe?
“We put the officers on high alert. We’ll continue to do those things as far as precautionary measures are concerned,” HISD Police Chief Jimmy Dotson told KTRH.
Dotson told KTRH that having armed officers at schools would make Houston children safer.
“It has a tremendous impact. It has a preventative impact and it also has an immediate response impact,” Dotson explained.
But there are layers to school security systems, and school security expert Catherine Simt-Torrez told Houston’s morning news that cameras monitoring school doors aren’t nearly strong enough measures to protect children.
“You cannot put all of your eggs in that basket,” Smit-Torrez explained. “Those detection systems are only as good as the operator running them.”
Smit-Torrez also told Houston’s Morning News that parents should take an active role when it comes to school safety issues.
“It’s really important that parents go to their school board and their school administrators and ask if the school has a lockdown drill that is practiced. They need to find out if there is a plan, and if that plan is practiced,” she said.
Hear the podcast with Matt Patrick and Houston's Morning News as he talks with Torrez:
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