TYLER, Texas — Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith said Tuesday that law enforcement and school districts continue to enforce their alert training that was adopted by the Department of Public Safety to all school campuses and officers.
"We feel very comfortable that in working together doing this training together, that we're gonna be equipped much better to respond," Smith said.
Smith said the department has two certified trainers for alert training. They train anyone involved with the school districts, and there are armed officers at school campuses in Smith County.
"The response time should be almost immediate by the school resource officers that are being put in place by Gov. Abbott and the legislature" Smith said.
The same goes for Deep East Texas. Les Linebarger, chief communications director for Nacogdoches ISD, said their officers are well-prepared.
"We truly want our schools to be a place of safety for our students and our staff. And it's something that is in the back of everyone's minds at all times during the day," Linebarger said.
Smith said they’re always training their officers and looking for ways to improve security.
"I assure you, we're ready to respond to any incident of this nature, or any threat of an incident is danger and take seriously any person that somebody calls in to us," Smith said.
There are also many districts in our area that are part of the Guardian Program, which allows schools to authorize qualified employees to carry a weapon on campus for the purpose of defending students or staff.