Making The Grade: A look at how Central Texas schools performed on anti-intruder tests in the wake of Uvalde

CENTRAL TEXAS (KWTX) - After the tragedy in Uvalde, the State of Texas began conducting tests to make sure doors in every school are locked.

Last school year, the Texas State University School Safety Center was in charge of these intruder detection audits. But at the start of this school year, the TEA took them over.

KWTX found out that so far this school year, a majority of Central Texas schools have passed. The intruder wasn’t able to get inside schools tested at Waco, Temple, Belton, Chilton and Clifton. The intruder did get into one of the Killeen ISD schools tested. Meanwhile Aquilla ISD hasn’t yet had a test performed.

Temple ISD schools have vestibules to make sure no one from the outside can get inside. A vestibule is a room between the outer door and the interior of the building. Dr. Ott said every school in his district got one this year.

“We have to make sure that we provide the most safe place for our students and staff, if we expect learning to happen,” Dr. Ott said.

Dr. Ott said his district had to adapt the summer before the intruder detection audits officially began in the 2022-2023 school year.

“For the exterior door audit we had our maintenance team and our SROs go to all buildings and they did find some malfunctions,” Dr. Ott said. “Thankfully we did and we made those fixes.”

These tests can happen at any point during the school year. KWTX put in an open records request to get the results from all audits conducted so far this school year. The request was forwarded along to the Attorney General’s office, who is still reviewing the legality of releasing that information.

Last school year, according to a report released from the Texas State University School Safety Center, the state only got inside about 4% of Texas schools tested.

Even when she isn’t getting tested, Suzanne Hamilton, Waco ISD executive director of student services, makes an effort to regularly check doors. It’s actually another requirement of the intruder detection audits.

“Each week we’re required to check all of the doors to make sure they’re working and that they’re shut, so nothing outside that could be used as a prop,” Hamilton said.

Before the state visits a campus, district leaders will get a heads up on which schools will be tested at the beginning of the month.

“They’ll let us know, ‘hey these are the campuses,’ but they won’t tell us what day they’re coming,” Dr. Ott said. “They’ll say, ‘in September we’re going to visit Scott Elementary, Travis Science Academy and Edwards Academy.’”

When they arrive the TEA official is trying to figure out whether they can get inside the school.

“The auditors come out and they’re looking for all the state mandated items such as all exterior doors locked,” Hamilton said. “They are looking to make sure they can’t gain entry in any way.”

But what happens if they do gain entry?

“If they’re able to open a door then they will come into the building,” Hamilton said. “They will go into the front office and check in and they will have a conversation with an administrator.”

According to Hamilton, these testers have proper ID and a clipboard so they don’t necessarily look like a real threat.

“They’re not going to try and scale a fence or try to knock on a window to try and get a kid to come around and open the door,” Hamilton said.

Just like Temple ISD, Waco ISD has vestibules at every school to make sure an intruder can’t enter.

“All of the items that we’re talking about are just tools,” Hamilton said. “It still comes down to the adults talking to the kids in the building to make sure everyone is aware.”

Vestibules that Chilton ISD superintendent Dr. Brandon Hubbard said the state also examines through its audits.

“They also check entrance procedures, visitor procedures making sure that there’s a safe way for visitors of the campus to come through and are monitored,” Dr. Hubbard said.

School leaders said it’s all a way to hopefully prevent another school shooting like Uvalde from happening.

“I wish it weren’t a topic that we had to talk about as it relates to school shootings, but I think those audits make us aware of the shortcomings we may have when it comes to security,” Dr. Hubbard said.

KWTX reached out to the TEA to get a better understanding of what it’s looking for in these audits. However a spokesperson said the TEA couldn’t comment further because doing so could taint its investigations.

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