WFISD Talks Safety And Prepare To Make Changes In Schools

In Wichita Falls the process to look at possible changes is just getting started.

School officials met this afternoon to discuss selecting a security review team, it will be composed of 5 to 7 members, they hope to select a volunteer firefighter, maintenance worker, security member from Sheppard and each principal to review the individual campuses.

The assessments should take the next six weeks measuring to keep the schools and your child safe.

Things are back to normal in local schools after the winter break.

But normal can change to horrifying very quickly, as the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary shows.

It has Bill Horton WFISD's Director of Security ready to get to work.

"after Columbine things changed, after different events occur things change. So that's what's going to happen to this shooting in Connecticut, after we look at the procedures, what happened, then things will change," he said.

But according to Horton things were already set to change.

Reviewing security was part of the district's 5 year strategic plan, but now it's the number one priority.

"it is just going from the bottom to the top and it's been part of the plan but we have been bumped up to the top," Horton said.

Now WFISD is putting together a security review team.

That team will assess each school by looking at potential threats the campuses could face.

Then they'll look at containment measures, which he says is key to keeping out intruders.

"So if you come into this lobby we can contain you here, and not get you in any part of the school. So we maintain control of who gets entry and who stays out," he said.

Horton says new schools in Wichita Falls already have these type entryways, but older schools will need to add them.

And though this is just the beginning they say this will help to create a place where kids will be safer.

Horton said reports from the Connecticut shooting shouldn't come out for about a year, but they want to begin taking measures before then.