I-Team: Are North Texas schools going 'above and beyond' to secure doors after Uvalde shooting?
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) — Metal detectors, alarms, panic buttons, cameras with artificial intelligence - the latest in security technology was on full display inside a Fort Worth hotel this summer at school safety conference.
Texas schools will spend millions on technology this year to harden campuses, but experts say the best line of defense at schools remains a door and a lock.
"It's the perimeter. It's the basis of where you start," said school safety and security analyst Guy Bliesner. "A properly locked classroom door has not been breached in a school shooting. We have no history of that happening. That means it's an effective deterrent."
For years Texas schools have emphasized securing exterior doors as part of their safety plans, but the unsecured doors at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde has many schools doubling down and rethinking its efforts.
In a June hearing about the Uvalde school shooting, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw testified that 18-year-old gunman entered the elementary school through an unlocked exterior door. McCraw said the gunman then entered a classroom that had a malfunctioning door lock. A teacher had reported the broken lock prior to the shooting, according to McCraw's testimony.
Just weeks after the shooting, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) notified all school districts, before students return from summer break, schools must inspect every exterior door on every campus.
The mandated exterior door surveys were to be completed by September 1st. Districts had until September 9th to inform the Texas School Safety Center the audits had been done.
School districts are also required to conduct weekly exterior door checks on all campuses as part of the TEA's rules.
Dallas ISD officials said the area's largest school district went even further than the state's requirements in ensuring its exterior doors on its campuses are secure.
"We checked the doorbell buzzards. We checked the keycard reader," said DISD chief operations officer, David Bates. "We went above and beyond. Even if the air compression from the air condition was too powerful and the door would not close all the way, we adjusted those set points."
Like several North Texas school districts, DISD has also taken multiple steps to ensure maintenance and repairs of exterior doors are prioritized.
Starting this year, Bates said every morning at 5:30 a.m., all work orders for exterior campus doors are assigned first.
"We can get a lot of things wrong. Safety is one that we can't," said Bates.
A CBS 11 I-Team data analysis of three years of maintenance work orders found Dallas ISD reported completing work orders related to doors and door locks within 30 days 94% of the time.
Records obtained by the I-Team from other North Texas school districts too showed the majority of broken school interior and exterior doors were fixed within a few days.
In cases where work orders took longer to close, school officials told the I-Team in some cases it was a clerical mistake or a supervisor who failed to sign off on a completed repair. In other cases, school districts pointed to supply chain issues in getting needed parts as well as challenges with hiring and retaining specialized skilled workers as reasons for delays.
However, in cases involving exterior doors, school officials said, while the door may not have been fixed right away, those doors were secured immediately.
Mark Harrington, a history teacher in DISD for the past 24 years, advises young teachers to be persistent in getting repairs fixed, especially when it creates a safety issue.
"It's easy for things to get lost in the mix and you have to sometimes be the squeaky wheel if you are going to get the grease," he said. "If there is something wrong in my room that I think is unsafe, I'm going to keep at it until its fixed."