Eagle Pass Independent School District Police Chief Jose Ramos discussed school security and student safety at Board meeting
By: Jose G. Landa, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2015
Eagle Pass Independent School District Chief of Police Jose “Joe” Ramos made a presentation for the EPISD Board of Trustees at their meeting held on Tuesday, October 13,2015, detailing the security measures in place and recently implemented measures concerning the protection and safety of students, teachers, and staff at all district campuses.
During the informative presentation, Ramos gave a detailed breakdown as to what the EPISD Police Department does on a daily basis to assure the safeguarding of all school children and personnel of the EPISD.
“We are here to safeguard our future, Today. We strive to create a prosperous environment that is conducive to learning,” said Ramos.
Ramos presented a description of the inner-workings that are implemented through his department to safeguard all EPISD campuses.
The EPISD Police Department currently is staffed with 28 licensed Peace Officers and 5 security officers. Ramos presented a general breakdown of the different security and policing assignments assigned to his department officers through each school day and at every school campus within the EPISD.
Ramos provided the total number of incidents reported at all EPISD campuses during the past two years. During 2013-2014, Ramos noted there were 329 total cases handled by the EPISD Police Department while during 2014-2015 there were 391 total cases. “This is the caseload that we had during 2013-2014 and 2014-2015,” said Ramos.
Ramos noted that during the 2014-2015 school year there is an increase in cases handled from the previous year.
Among the most notable cases from the 329 cases reported by the EPISD Police for the 2013-2014 school year, 6 cases were for assaults with bodily injury cases including 3 cases at Eagle Pass High School, one at Eagle Pass Jr. High, and two at Memorial Junior High; 22 assaults by contact, including one at EPHS, 3 at CC Winn; 5 at EPJH, 6 at MJH, 1 at DAEP, and 6 at Elementary/ECC/LDC/Kennedy; 5 Assaults on a Public Servant, including one at EPHS, one at CCWINN, 2 at EPJH, one at MJH; 19 criminal mischief cases, including 2 at EPHS, 2 at CCWINN, 2 at EPJH, one at MJH, and 11 at Elementary/ECC/LDC/Kennedy; 22 Disorderly Conduct Affray, including one at EPHS, 9 at CCWINN, 3 at EPJH, 9 at MJH; 30 Possession of Marijuana under 2 ounces, including 6 at EPHS, 12 at CCWINN, 6 at EPJH, and 2 atMJH, (1) DAEP, and (1) Elementary/ECC/LDC/Kennedy; and 5 resisting arrest cases, including 2 at CCWINN, and 3 at EPJH.
The EPISD Police yearly reports show that during the 2014-2015 school year there were 391 total cases reported by the EPISD Police Department, including one assault with bodily injury case reported in the whole school district, 3 at Elementary/ECC/LDC/Kennedy; 35 assaults by contact, including 5 at EPHS, 5 at CCWINN, 7 at EPJH, 12 R MJH, 2 AT DAEP, and 3 at Elementary/ECC/LDC/Kennedy: 4 Assaults on a Public Servant, including one at CCWINN, one at MJH and 2 at DAEP; 11 criminal mischief cases, including one at MJH, and 7 at Elementary/ECC/LDC/Kennedy, (3) others; 18 Disorderly Conduct Affray cases, including one at EPHS, 10 at CCWINN, one at EPJH, 6 at MJH; 28 Possession of Marijuana under 2 ounces cases, including 9 at EPHS, 10 at CCWINN, 3 at EPJH and 4 at MJH, (2) others: 7 Possession of a Controlled Substance cases, including 4 at CCWINN, one at EPJH and one at MJH, one at DAEP ; and 3 possession of a dangerous drug cases, including 2 at CCWINN and one at MJH.
Other issues Ramos addressed were Secondary School Safety, Accessibility of Unauthorized Visitors, Lack of Personnel at certain campuses, Control of access to schools during school hours, written crisis response plan, emergency notification system, security cameras, emergency response plan, faculty I.D badges, staff training to recognize early warnings of violence, the use of an anonymous threat reporting system, and student I.D badges.
Ramos explained that the EPISD department has undergone various trainings such as on August 4, 2015, a Juvenile Law for Law Enforcement Officers; on August 5, 2015, a Firearms Qualifications and Essential Firearms Training; on August 7, 2015, a Drug and Alcohol Prevention Training; on August 18, 2015, a Multi – Agency Training , Active Shooter Drills, Bus/Vehicle Assaults and Tactical Formation/ Approach; on August 19, 2015, a Live Fire Training Exercise; on 8/21/15, a CPR/AED training, and on 8/31/15, a Current Drug Trend and School Administrative Searches Training.
Other items that Ramos presented to the EPISD Board of Trustees were Programs currently in place such as the Drug and Gangs Prevention Program, District Wide Anti- Bullying Initiative and Multi Agency School Safety Program.
“One of our main concerns was school safety and how safe our schools were, we got together with our officers and school administration and addressed some of those issues and have made some adjustments and changes and there are other projects on the way that will take care of other issues that we have seen, ” said Ramos.
Ramos went on to detail the certain concerns at the many school campuses and also explaining to the EPISD School Board as to what was being done to address and fix those issues.
“We have initiated a whole new training regimen.” Added Ramos.
Ramos also notified the school board that they do have lockdown drills in place and are currently practicing them throughout the campuses with the intent to further the knowledge of all campus administrations into the procedures.
EPISD Board of Trustee Rudy Bowles raised an important issue regarding student safety, specifically that he would like for the EPISD Police Department and Administration to implement further strategies to safeguard school campuses from potential dangers of unwanted intruders.
“Simply, because, of the involvement of some of our kids with people on the wrong side of the law, across the river. We need to make sure that they don’t come over to get payment on some of the things they give them money to buy and they don’t come through .We had some kids injured on that as we all know, because they didn’t fulfill their obligation with what they were supposed to buy for them and so on. We need to be careful, in other words finalize and prevent this from happening in any of our schools,” said Bowles.
Trustee Bowles is a former principal for many years at one of the district’s high schools and is aware of the serious problems faced by EPISD students concerning the recruitment of them by fellow students working for the drug cartels or outside intruders who illegally enter the campuses to solicit students for criminal activities.
There are several cases in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in Del Rio, Texas involving EPISD high school students arrested and indicted for drug smuggling who were recruited either at school or outside of school by classmates or outside persons.
Bowles stated that those types of issues are important and must be addressed to the full extent and that the School District should give the EPISD Police Department all the necessary tools to continue safeguarding the students, staff and personnel. “We must finalize what we have already and review what is in place in Laredo, that’s been working to avoid from having to go through some kind of tragedy.” Added Bowles.
Ramos did answer other questions from School Board Trustees Ignacio Saucedo and Humberto Torralba on the needs of the EPISD Police Department to assure the safety and safeguarding of the entire school campuses within the EPISD.
