By BARBARA GREEN
editor@bowienewsonline.com
Each time there is a school shooting incident in America it launches a debate on the security of our schools. The May 24 mass casualty incident at Uvalde in Robb Elementary was no different although seemingly even more tragic with the loss of 19 elementary school students and two teachers. The 18-year-old gunman, Salvador Ramos, was killed at the scene.
This shooting came just 10 days after a shooting at a Tops supermarket in New York that took the lives of 10 people.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed the Texas Education Agency late last week to provide strategies to make Texas public schools safer. Specifically, districts were asked to identify actions they can take prior to the start of the new school year to make campuses more secure; instruct districts to conduct weekly inspections of exterior doors to verify they are secure during school hours and develop strategies to encourage school districts to increase the presence of trained law enforcement officers and school marshals on campus.
All the superintendents in the county will be meeting in Bowie Thursday in response to the Uvalde shooting. Enlow said they will talk about what they are doing in their districts, new information and ideas and thought processes that may be set up in responding to the Texas incident.
Buildings
Bowie Independent School District has undertaken many steps to increase security and several projects are in the works. Superintendent Blake Enlow said the Uvalde shooting occurred just a few days before the school year ended in Bowie and it was on everyone’s mind at the annual staff breakfast on the last day.

Read the full story on the improvements made for school security in the last five years in your mid-week Bowie News.