BULLARD, Texas — While many families are preparing to start their back to school shopping, several East Texas school districts are hosting active shooter trainings.
On Tuesday, the Bullard Intermediate School was used for various law enforcement officers to conduct these drills.
"It's the school based law enforcement course 2195," said John Jones, the director of school safety and chief of police for Bullard ISD. "It’s for law enforcement officers who work in a school setting."
It's a training that brings together officers from the local and state levels.
"They are going to be here if we have a problem, or an issue and need them," Jones said. "So it's a great opportunity to train together. This is part of the governor's orders to have all law enforcement in school settings trained."
After the tragic shooting in Uvalde, Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to the Texas School Safety Center.
It stated that districts must create school safety and security committees, and that they are required to meet three times a year, including one in the summer.
But practices like this are not new to the school district.
"This training has been going on for several years," said Sgt. Jean Dark, a public information officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. "This is a program brought to communities through Texas State University and the alert program there. This is just one of the many programs that they offer to law enforcement as well as to civilians, as far as a response to an active attack."
According to Dark, there are other programs like the Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events. This educates the public on what to do if they are caught in a shooting situation.
Bullard ISD staff will take part in this training.
"It educates the public," Dark said. "I've done it at churches, I've done it at different businesses, we do them all over the state of Texas [to] educate the public. If anybody is interested in having that done at their place of business or at their place of worship, we are more than happy to fulfill that need."
"We're doing everything we can to keep all of our kids safe, all of our families, our entire community as safe as possible," said Bullard ISD Superintendent Jack Lee. "That's part of what this training is, that our people are trained and ready to go in the event that they ever have to respond to something."