Local districts are talking about the safety of their students in the aftermath of the deadly Valentine’s Day school shooting in Florida.

Port Arthur, Port Neches-Groves and Nederland school districts all have plans in place should there be an active shooter situation.

In PAISD the district’s Crisis Management Plan is updated yearly, PAISD Superintendent Mark Porterie said

“As we continue to build and renovate our facilities the question of how best we can ensure the safety of our staff and students will be priority,” Porterie said. “After our community passed the most recent bond we made it our goal to remove the portable buildings throughout the district. Tyrrell Elementary School is the first school at which the renovation of classrooms has been completed and students and staff have been moved out of the portable buildings. A wrought iron gate surrounds the premises of the building and all exterior doors remain locked from the outside. All schools will have a secure vestibule that will not allow entrance without first being identified.”

Mike Gonzales, superintendent at PNGISD, said the district has procedures and protocol in place and that several years ago the district held active shooter training through the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, or ALERRT.

In addition, schools in the district as well as the administration building have locked doors where visitors are buzzed in through with camera security systems.

NISD Superintendent Robin Perez addressed the issue on the district’s website.

“Nederland ISD follows guidelines from the Texas State School Safety Center in determining safety procedures and protocols,” Perez said in the community letter. “The district and campuses have an emergency plan in place. Also, each campus has a crisis team. We conduct regularly scheduled safety meetings and drills at the campus and district levels. Staff and administration actively monitor campuses.”

The district also has security cameras and partner with Nederland police to add an additional layer of monitoring in addressing school safety concerns.

Earlier this week President Donald Trump suggested that teachers adept with a firearm could carry a concealed weapon and stop school shooters. The pattern of talk on the subject is similar to Texas’s school marshal program, authored and passed in 2013 by State Rep. Jason Villalba. Villalba represents District 114 covering parts of north and east Dallas.

Texas’s school marshal program allows faculty and staff of public, private and charter schools and community colleges to undergo the same training as police officers, according to a press release from Villalba’s office. In the event of an active shooter on campus, the trained individual becomes instantly deputized as a peace officer, allowing them to take action for the armed defense of the children. For security reasons, there is no public data on where or exactly how many school marshals are currently active in Texas schools. However, it is believed that over 100 school faculty and staff have successfully completed the program and are now anonymously protecting children every day.

Porterie shared his thoughts saying that educators go to school everyday to change the lives of children in a positive way; “we nurture, discipline, feed, cloth, address their health needs and love it when we see the light bulb go off during the delivery of instruction.”

“It is frightening that in 2018 we are faced with the idea that teachers be allowed to carry a firearm in order to protect themselves and our children,” he said. “Yes, I agree that we, as a community and country have to address what is happening with our gun laws and the freestyle attitude that allow individuals to purchase. It takes the creativity and love out of education when we have to think about the idea of a school marshal or the possibility of packing a gun when walking the hallways with elementary children to lunch or secondary students as they transition classes.”

In the days since the murder of 17 Florida students, there have been a handful of Texas students jailed or charge with making terroristic threats.

Earlier this week an 18-year old male student at Kirbyville High School was arrested for making a terroristic threat allegedly during a discussion about the Florida school shooting.

Kirbyville Consolidated Independent School District officials released a statement saying police were immediately notified and the student taken into custody. The student will be placed in a disciplinary alternative educator program for the rest of the school year.

A 16-year-old male student at Little Cypress-Mauricville high School has been detained after he reportedly made a post on social media and a threat of violence. The post was deleted shortly after it was made, according to information from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

The Hull-Daisetta Independent School District is investigating an altercation between two students that led to a threat of violence, according to the district’s website. Local law enforcement is involved and the student was removed from the school.

On Thursday, a threatening message was written on a bathroom wall at Richardson High School in Dallas County that made a reference to a potential school shooting that would occur on Thursday.

The school resource officer and RISD stuff believe that two female students, ages 15 and 16, were responsible for the writing. Both were arrested for terroristic threat, a third degree felony.

Closer to home, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office received a report from Hamshire Fannett High School that a comment was made about a gun from one student to another, according to the sheriff’s office.

Deputies interviewed the students involved; no gun was ever seen by students, no gun was found and no threat was made to anyone. Detectives are currently investigating the incident.

“We commend the students who voiced their concerns and we encourage parents to open a dialogue with your children about school safety, according to the sheriff’s office. “It is never OK to even joke about guns or violence, particularly on a school campus.”

Prior to this event, the sheriff’s office increased its presence at all of the schools in rural Jefferson County. They ask the pubic to not be alarmed if they see Jefferson County Deputies or Constables at schools.

“It is our job to protect our schools. We will be walking hallways, walking parking lots and patrolling perimeters, the press release read. In that same vein, don’t over-react and post things on social media that you don’t know as a fact. This causes unnecessary panic in the community.”