We caught up to Assistant Superintendent for District Operations, Mr. Eduardo Treviño, who informed The News Gram what they as a district are doing to prevent such a tragedy from occurring in the EPISD.
"First of all, every school has developed an emergency plan for their particular campus," stated Treviño who has been working closely with a Crisis Intervention and Prevention committee who have been busy developing the district's Emergency Operations Plan which he told us has just been adopted, "Additionally, all schools are on lockdown and measures have been taken to not allow anyone on campus that has no business there."
He added that door sensors are being installed in all campuses and door bells as well so staff can be aware if someone has business to take care of in the school.
Badges are being designed at this time for all employees to have differentiating colors to be able to identify all staff members who work in our schools from teachers to office staff, para-professionals, substitute teachers, custodians, cafeteria staff and even visitors.
"All employees will need to have a badge and no one will be let in without it," warned the EPISD leader.
"When a parent comes into a school, they will go directly to the principal's office and will be issued a 'Visitor's' badge."
The plan itself touches on the professionalism each and every member of a school's staff must exemplify in such a situation, evacuation and reverse evacuation procedures, lockdown procedures, shelter in place to deal with the threat of hazardous chemicals, procedures in case of medical emergencies, the use of emergency status cards during lockdowns, and information for substitute teachers.
Another interesting aspect of the plan is the Breaking Down the "Code of Silence" Barrier section which would be a joint effort to interfere with the time span between an attacker's decision to mount an attack being that the actual incident may be short, and maintaining a code of silence and not alerting any other adult on their own for their own and for the students' safety.
"All schools are being set up with locks. We have a lot of old buildings. We need to be sure that every single room in the district is set up to be locked from the inside," he concluded.
These and other measures are being put in place in order to secure the safety of the children of Eagle Pass and Maverick County and to assure all parents that the last place that such a horrible tragedy could occur would be within the walls of a school in the Eagle Pass Independent School District because our children are important and should not have to worry about being in danger when coming to school to learn.