SENATE APPROVES “UVALDE STRONG” SCHOOL SAFETY ACT

(AUSTIN) — Three years after a gunman shot and killed 19 students and 2 teachers at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, the Senate approved a bill Monday that looks to improve the way that police, emergency medicine, and other first responders deal with active shooting events. Crafted in the House by former Uvalde mayor and current Representative Don McLaughlin, and carried in the Senate by Pleasanton Senator Pete Flores, the bill will require better cooperation between agencies in an effort to avoid the chaos of the response to the Robb Elementary shooting. Such were the failings in that response that it prompted the Department of Justice to investigate the incident. The findings were startling. Seventy-seven minutes passed between the time when the first police arrived on the scene and eventually confronted and killed the shooter. According to the FBI, the average response time for active shootings is around three minutes. Four hundred police officers representing local, county, and state law enforcement, including a sheriff and two police chiefs, converged on the scene and created a situation in which no one knew who was in charge. This bill, said Flores, is intended to break down the walls between agencies and get everyone working as a team, regardless of which agency they work for, in active shooter situations. “This bill makes notable efforts to ensure that Texas schools are a safe place to send our children,” said Flores.

HB 33, sponsored by Pleasanton Senator Pete Flores, seeks to improve cooperation between law enforcement agencies responding to active shooting events.

Part of the reforms passed last session in the immediate wake of the shooting included a bill that requires all peace officers in the state undergo training in active shooter response training at the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center at Texas State University in San Marcos. The bill approved Monday builds on that legislation by addressing the barriers between the agencies and institutions to ensure that these trained officers work together to minimize the loss of life when a mass shooting happens. “I know it’s the intent of this body to be able to ensure that our public servants work together in unison to address this type of event,” said Flores. “It’s done in the military, it’s done in emergency management, and it needs to continue to be done when we’re working in response to these active shooting events.”

The bill, HB 33, seeks to improve cooperation in several different ways. It would require annual meetings between relevant agencies: schools, local emergency medicine, local law enforcement - anyone who might be involved in the response to a mass shooting. They would be required to create a multi-hazard emergency response plan. Municipal police, including city, county, and campus agencies, would be required to develop and implement standardized response plans, and the bill would direct the Texas Department of Emergency Management to work with local law enforcement to develop a guide on active shooter preparedness. At the state level, it would require that DPS determine what resources are available in every Texas county that has a public school and to enter into mutual aid agreements with sheriffs in those counties. It would task the ALERRT Center with the creation of a standardized after-action reporting protocols that would allow for the evaluation and improvement of response plans in the aftermath of a mass shooting.

“Anything that could happen, happened,” said San Antonio Senator Roland Gutierrez of the Robb Elementary shooting. “It was in all of that failure, from law enforcement at every level that led to the continued loss of life.” As the senator representing Uvalde, Gutierrez has been a fierce advocate over the past two sessions for reforms to ensure that what happened in 2022 is never repeated. Though he says more needs to be done, the bill looks to address many of the failures across all levels that he said made the Robb Elementary mass shooting so much worse than it had to be. “It’s my hope that through this piece of legislation that it’ll be one step closer to making sure that this never happens again,” said Gutierrez.

The bill now heads to the desk of Governor Greg Abbott for his signature.

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