Superintendent at school safety summit: 'We need to make sure we train all the people in the boat'

Two Houston-area public school districts, along with representatives from the U.S. Secret Service, hosted a school safety seminar, Houston-based media outlets reported.

Houston CBS affiliate KHOU reported that the summit was in the works before the May mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde that claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers, with hundreds of public school officials from across the state in attendance. 

The event was hosted by Stafford Municipal School District (SMSD) and Lamar Consolidated Independent School District (LCISD).

According to KHOU, the Secret Service taught educators how to spot the signs of imminent danger and harden their campuses.

"Safety of our kids. Safety of the schools,” Secret Service agent Mac Bostic said, according to the station. “That’s what we’re here for today.”

Bostic and his brother, SMSD Superintendent Dr. Robert Bostic, were speakers at the event.

Attendees learned that tragedies like Uvalde present an opportunity for districts to assess the positives and negatives of their efforts.

"We want to make sure our parents and our community members know that the safety of our students is paramount,” LCSID Superintendent Dr. Roosevelt Nivens said, per KHOU.

Houston ABC affiliate KTRK reported that SMSD and LCISD hosted the first summit in 2018, the year in which the mass shooting at Santa Fe High School – which was then considered the deadliest school shooting in Texas – took place.

"We need to make sure we train all the people in the boat,” Dr. Robert Bostic said, according to the station. “We need to make sure everybody gets it who's out in the school community, so it becomes common language."

Houston Daily reported in June that Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center at Texas State University in San Marcos to provide active shooter training to the state's public school districts.

The governor requested Dr. Pete Blair, ALERRT's executive director, to initiate programs with a strong emphasis on school-based law enforcement.

The Texas House of Representatives earlier this month released an extensive report on the events at Robb, with the findings attributing the shooting to what lawmakers said were "systematic failures."

According to the approximately 80-page House investigative committee report, the number of law enforcement officers who were summoned to Robb doubled the number of soldiers who defended the Alamo, yet the officers were unable to immediately respond to what would eventually become an hour-long ordeal because of an absence of clear leadership and miscommunication.