‘Something needs to change’ – Lincoln schools’ last day clouded by Texas shooting | Education

“I’m sure there were some parents who might have kept their kids home,” Joel said in a joint news conference with Lincoln Police Chief Teresa Ewins on Wednesday morning. “I’ll say that our schools are safe, and in many ways, safer than a lot of other places.”

The shooting in Texas appeared to have no significant effect on attendance in Lincoln on Wednesday. In fact, more students were in school than the previous two days.

Ewins said there were increased patrols around schools on Wednesday, and LPS Security Director Joe Wright said administrators provided increased visibility.

After the Sandy Hook massacre, LPS and LPD began to work closely on threat assessment and violence prevention at schools. An interlocal agreement between the city and LPS signed in 2018 also added six school resource officers to work in the district’s 12 middle schools, in addition to officers already in place in high schools.

The agreement also provided LPS with a full-time police investigator assigned to the district’s threat assessment team, Wright said. Each school also has its own security team, comprised of administrators at the elementary and middle school level and campus supervisors at high schools.

But an attack like the one Tuesday makes Wright think about the gaps that may still exist in the system.

“I get paid to worry about that,” he said.

For Sorensen, the conversation around gun control and better mental health resources for those in need cannot be delayed.

“We can all agree,” she said, “something needs to change.”