Uvalde CISD holds Safety and Security meeting attended by city, county and federal agency representatives

Report, Commentary and Picture  by James Alvarado 
Used by Permisson 
 Safety and Security meeting held today at UCISD, with school officials, city and county agencies, federal agencies and parents of children enrolled at UCISD. These meetings are required to be held quarterly.
Among the things discussed in the roughly one hour meeting, was UCISD coordinating with local and county agencies to be better prepared when incidents occur at any UCISD campus.
  Each agency having a designated PIO (public information officer) to coordinate with Anne Marie Espinoza, Executive Communications Director for UCISD. This way information will be related to parents accurately. Also, deciding with one platform (ie Facebook, school website, etc) where official statements will be posted and also one last official statement needs to be posted when the threat is over.
  Superintendent Chohlis leading the sight of the command center that will include, police chief, city police chief, sheriff and high level officers viewing from cameras at campus and using air surveillance to relay details to those on the ground.
  Mr. Baron will head the reunification committee, and he mentioned three possible sites they are considering as reunification sites. Coordinating with Uvalde Memorial Hospital so that everyone is on the same page when directing families were to go.
 The meeting ended with Superintendent Chohlis, saying that answers will come addressing the issues about things being brought into campuses such as contrabands with options including metal detectors, screeners and/or clear backpacks.
  Columbine, Santa Fe, Sandy Hook, Parkland and countless other shootings happened before Uvalde. Being at this meeting and hearing them talk about this, takes my breath away that UCISD, UVALDE Police department, City of Uvalde, Uvalde County, Uvalde Memorial Hospital never had any plans set in motion for if a tragedy of this magnitude ever happened here.
  I’ve said it before and I’ll always say it, the deaths of 19 children and 2 teachers IS NOT A LESSON TO LEARN FROM. Protocols on how to handle active shooters were put in place after Columbine. Emergency plans were never put in place or practiced here. The mentality was that something like that would never happen here.
-James Alvarado