The Wylie ISD School Board held a public hearing Thursday night following recent events involving students with weapons on school property.
The purpose of the hearing was to inform attendees about safety and security methods used by the past and present and to hear feedback from parents, WISD Superintendent Joey Light said.
Associate Superintendent of School Operations Craig Bessent gave a presentation detailing the evolution of school safety following major events like Columbine, Sandy Hook and Uvalde.
After the tragedy of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Dec. 14, 2012, Bessent said the district started making improvements and strengthening safety measures on all Wylie ISD campuses.
Improvements at the local level included updating school security vestibules, installation of entry-proof glass, teaching tactical emergency response procedures and implementing an Emergency Operations Plan and a School Behavior Threat Assessment Program.
Bessent shared his experiences working alongside Gov. Greg Abbott to create the Texas School Marshal Program and develop state laws that outline school safety for over 1,200 school districts.
Following Bessent’s presentation, parents were able to ask questions about district safety protocols and give feedback on how they handled the two separate incidents that recently occurred.
On Sept. 30, a student at Wylie West Junior High was found with a loaded gun in his backpack and was removed from the classroom without incident, officials said.
Light detailed how administrators handled the situation using its pre-established procedures.
More: Loaded gun found at Wylie West Junior High Monday afternoon
“We had a student near the end of the day, around the beginning of seventh period, who told a teacher that there was a kiddo with a gun. That teacher immediately contacted the assistant principal. The assistant principal immediately grabbed the school marshal, and they went straight to that classroom,” Light said. “They secured the student and the backpack and the weapon. It was very fast.”
Light later said it took about five minutes to apprehend the student and the weapon after being notified.
While that was happening, school resource officer Cody Brown, the Wylie West Junior High principal, Bessent and Light were notified. After traveling from the high school to the junior high, Brown began an investigation, Light said.
While Brown investigated, Light said he contacted the district communications director and school board, notifying them of the basic information of the situation.
The communications director then started to craft a statement that was “accurate and does not state anything that’s going to trigger a negative situation because we’ve already confiscated everything,” Light said.
During the question-and-answer portion of the hearing, parents asked why the school did not proceed with a lockdown, the attendance status of the student involved and whether the student raised flags on Student Behavior Threat Assessment.
“The main thing we want to do is get control of that dangerous weapon and the individual immediately. What we do not want to do is alert that individual,” Bessent said.
The district abided with the guidelines in the Texas Education Code and Student Code of Conduct, which resulted in mandatory expulsion of the student and not allowing them to return to campus, Bessent said.
The school had not had any issues or disciplinary referrals for the student at the time, Light said.
Other questions pertained to a separate incident involving a knife on a school bus.
According to the district communications director, Wylie East Elementary School and Wylie East Intermediate School families were notified during the same week of another incident involving a Wylie East Intermediate student pulling a pocket knife out of his backpack on an afternoon bus route that was transporting students home from East Elementary and East Intermediate schools.
Since the event happened after school, an investigation had to take place, which took longer to communicate with parents, Light said. The student was also not allowed to return to school.
Parents were concerned about the efficiency and speed of communication after both incidents occurred.
“We want to be sure we give good information, and it sometimes takes a little longer,” Light said. “We tried to take immediate action and tried to communicate as soon as we felt like we had good information to share”
Further discussion took place about teaching age-appropriate lessons about safety, adding metal detectors and X-ray machines, and requiring students to wear clear backpacks to school.
At the end of the meeting, School Board President Miller Loudermilk urged parents to reach out to administrators and trustees to share their thoughts and feedback about bettering safety and security for WISD students.
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This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Wylie ISD shares protocols for handling safety in public hearing
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