SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – The mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, has put the focus on security at schools across the nation.
“I’m a dad and I love my daughter to death. She’s my world and I could only image that some of the parent, you know, they’re just devastated,” said Earnest Mitchell, whose child attends a San Diego-area school.
Bob Mueller, interim director of safety and student engagement with the San Diego County Office of Education, told ABC 10News, “We constantly follow any incident like this, we reevaluate what we’re doing. I do take some solace in the work that we’ve done in San Diego County to try to make those events less likely here.”
Mueller said local school districts and charter schools are independent and make their own final calls on security protocols.
Without disclosing details that would jeopardize anyone’s safety on campuses, Mueller said the COE does help districts and schools devise their active shooter drills and evacuations.
“We want employees to consider multiple ways out of a school and kind of rehearsed that ahead of time. So that they can choose that on the fly,” Mueller said.
“When it comes to training kids, we need to strike up a really careful balance,” he added.
Mueller said that balance is making sure students still feel safe at school while having appropriate training for them.
“We want to be ready, but we don’t want to frighten everybody and make it a hostile place for kids to be,” Mueller said.
Some local parents told ABC 10News they’re heartbroken over what happened in Texas but are confident in the security at their child’s school.
“I feel a little safer here, you know, here in San Diego. There hasn’t been as many incidents like that, and God willing there won’t ever be,” Mitchell said.
