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EDINBURG — Thousands of Hidalgo County students and teachers will see heightened police presence on campuses for the tail end of this semester in response to the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde on Tuesday.
Edinburg CISD Superintendent Mario Salinas announced as much Wednesday afternoon.
Representatives from a variety of local law enforcement agencies elaborated on what that presence will look like at a strategy meeting for Operation Safeguard at Edinburg CISD on Wednesday.
Edinburg CISD Police Chief Ricardo Perez said the district’s SWAT team will be placed on heightened alert for the end of the school years. Other law enforcement entities at the meeting said their officers will be spending more time at and in the vicinity of campuses in Edinburg.
School and law enforcement entities traded contact info and addresses and talked strategy in the event of a crisis.
“This didn’t happen overnight,” Perez said. “We’ve been working on this for over 10 years, since 2013, after Sandy Hook. We initiated Operation Safeguard, and here we are again: Operation Safeguard, getting on high alertness, making sure that our students are safe and that what happened in Uvalde doesn’t happen here.”
The last time Operation Safeguard made the news was in 2013. It resulted in the creation of the district’s SWAT team. Perez said communication was a central theme at Wednesday’s meeting.
“Communication is very important,” he said. “A part of the meeting was the leadership of these agencies — the sheriff, the constable’s office, DPS — that they have direct lines to our command staff. Direct lines to our principal’s offices.”
Familiarity between law enforcement and campus staff, Perez said, is also important.
“We want to make sure that they’re welcome,” he said. “That’s encouraged.”
Perez described the school district’s security approach as aggressive and forward-minded. He also said that it’s been effective.
“We want to make sure that our parents are assured that they’re kids are safe at our schools,” he said.
