The Comal Independent School District is implementing a few additional safety and security initiatives this school year in its ongoing commitment to ensure the safety of its students and staff. These initiatives include classroom go-kits, a lockdown alert system, student identification badges, visitor access, continued partnerships with local law enforcement and staff training.
“We know that safety is on the mind of every parent who has a child heading to school soon,” said Joe McKenna, Comal ISD director of safety and security. “We want our parents to know that we are committed to their children’s safety and are implementing a few new measures to further our efforts in keeping them safe while they are on our campuses.”
The classroom go-kits will be located in every Comal ISD classroom. The kits contain basic supplies a teacher may need in an emergency. These will be used to ensure that all students and staff are accounted for, safe and taken care of during emergency situations.
The lockdown alert system is similar to the red fire alarm pull stations. All of the Comal ISD elementary campuses are equipped with blue lockdown pull stations and flashing lights. This allows a lockdown to be initiated from strategic locations throughout the campus. Middle and high school campuses will be equipped with this system by the end of this semester.
Starting this school year, all secondary students will wear a Comal ISD identification badge while on campus and riding district transportation. A consistent student ID allows for quick and easy identification of who should be on each campus. Elementary bus riders will receive a transportation pass that allows for better efficiency and safety while riding the bus as well.
The district has added an additional layer of security when it comes to visitor access too. Doors from the entrance to the main office of every campus will now be secured and visitors will need to be “scanned” into the front office by a staff member.
In addition to the dedicated school resource officers (SRO) on each of the secondary campuses, Comal ISD has expanded its partnerships with local law enforcement agencies to include SROs who will rotate among the elementary campuses.
Finally, all Comal ISD staff members are receiving extra training on the district’s Standard Response Protocol (SRP) so they are better prepared to help in emergency situations. While their main focus remains engaging students in the classroom, the district wants to ensure they have the tools and resources needed to help prevent and mitigate negative situations, as well as respond to and recover from anything that may occur.
Read more information about Comal ISD’s safety initiatives, here.
-D.A.R.E. Officer Deputy Roxie Haik and School Resource Officer Deputy Robert Martinez are ready to get the new school year started. Both are part of the Comal County Sheriff's Office which is one of the district's key partners when it comes to safety and security.