Texas AG Paxton Issues School Safety Guidance — and Makes School Resource Officer Training Available

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today jointly announced (press release):

• The issuance of a plain language “advisory” summarizing the multitude of enhanced school safety/security laws that parents need to know about, and can refer to in holding their schools accountable.

• That school resource officers can make use of supplemental training resources available from his office.

“Advisory on School Safety for Texas Students”
The parent friendly “Advisory on School Safety for Texas Students” summarizes the enhanced school security and safety laws that have been enacted (requiring panic alarms in every classroom, armed guards at every campus, mandated law enforcement campus walk throughs, electronic notification to parents of a violent event occurring on campus, etc.).

One of the topics addressed in the advisory is how a parent can file a complaint with TEA if the parent believes his or her child’s district is not adhering to state-law mandated school safety/security requirements.

“Schools have an essential responsibility to protect student safety and well being,” Paxton said, adding: “Parents deserve to know what state law requires of their school district so that they can hold school boards and administrators accountable and better understand how districts should prepare for a worst case scenario.”

School Resource Officer Training
Paxton also announced he has instructed his office’s Law Enforcement Division to make supplemental training resources available for school resource officers.

This will include allowing any school resource officer the opportunity to train alongside Law Enforcement Division officers using the attorney general’s state-of-the-art virtual training simulator.

“This is a transformative tool enabling responders to prepare for emergencies by undergoing highly realistic training scenarios,” Paxton said.