Seguin ISD Safety Task Force in motion

(Seguin) – The Seguin ISD has officially launched its new Safety Task Force by recently hosting its first organizational meeting. The meeting came days before the release of the Texas House Committee report which showed the “systemic failures” behind the tragedy that unfolded at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. The interim report by the investigative committee shares details of what went wrong on that fateful day in which a gunman shot and killed 19 students and two teachers inside their classrooms.

Immediately following the May 24 shooting, the Seguin ISD responded by putting into motion the steps of organizing a safety task force. The district has since been applauded for its proactive approach to the tragedy and its overall efforts to better protect students and staff this upcoming school year.

School district officials confirm there wasn’t any time to procrastinate in reviewing its own safety and security measures. That’s when it decided to form the community-based committee of about 30 individuals.

Sean Hoffmann, the chief communications officer for the Seguin ISD, says after soliciting help and hearing the concerns of the community, the district was able to organize this group – a group now tasked with ensuring that the district do all that it can to keep students and staff in the Seguin ISD safe.

“We had a great turnout to that meeting. The vast majority of individuals who have volunteered to serve on that task force were in attendance and we did review some of the current policies, protocols and safety measures we have in place in our schools today,” said Hoffmann.

Hoffmann says this committee is facing some very important assignments.

“We are asking these committee members to work in groups and to identify different areas or ideas and really just share thoughts on where they see improvements can be made and really in four areas – physical safety at our schools; policies and procedures that are currently in place; emotional safety really for our students and staff and volunteer services which might improve safety outcomes within our school,” said Hoffmann.

Hoffmann says the district was more than pleased with the results of its first meeting and looks forward to the results.

“The conversation was very robust. We thank everybody who was able to come and we look forward to hosting them over the next couple of weeks with two more future meetings and really kind of solidify some of those ideas and identify what is doable, what might be included within our facilities plan as we move into the fall with a facilities planning process and really just go from there to see if there is any budgetary items or items that we may be needing to bring to the board of trustees for consideration in the future,” said Hoffmann.

The 77-page report released on the Uvalde tragedy described the exhaustive account as “systemic failures and egregious poor decision making” by all those in a position “of power.” In addition to the series of failures by multiple law enforcement agencies in their response at the scene, the report also indicated that the campus itself had issues of its own such as poor WiFi in the building making it difficult for teachers to receive the warning immediately and the fact that the school intercom was never used to communicate during the lockdown.

Additionally, the report noted that there were “recurring problems” with doors and locks – making them noncompliant with safety policies.

School districts all over are now being encouraged to comb through the report in hopes of also taking those additional steps like the Seguin ISD in securing their schools.

As part of the committee process, the Seguin ISD group is also still hoping to reach out to the community by way of survey. District officials say they want as many people as possible to be heard when it comes to the future protection of children in this community.