SAN ANTONIO – More than 6,000 students and 900 staff are headed back to school Monday for the first day of classes at Southside Independent School District.
Campus Police Chief Don Berger feels pretty confident about the safety plan the district has in place.
Berger said district police officers and security officers have been training and staying up to date on requirements. Parents can expect to see an officer at every campus during pick up and drop off.
Fencing was installed around each campus, a step the district invested in several years ago. Students will see metal detectors and wands at the campus entrance. Crews will begin installing bullet resistant film around every campus entry door and window.
The state has also increased safety requirements for school districts. Most recently, it launched the Sentinel across the state.
“It’s more of a reporting and tracking system where we can keep track of the students, keep track of the threat assessments, things of that nature,” Berger said. “As we’re preparing for Sentinel, we already have Navigate 360. It’s a system that’s in place already in all of our campuses. It has panic alarms. To give an example, if it’s in a classroom, a teacher hits that panic alarm. It goes across every officer in our district’s phone, so we all get notified of it.”
Students who live near Southside High School and Losoya Middle school will also have a safer walk to and from school.
Bexar County and TxDOT recently finished the construction of sidewalks and improvements to the crosswalk on Highway 281 and Martinez Losoya Road.