When Ector County ISD officials learned of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Superintendent Scott Muri said they reacted in horror and sprang into action.
The gunman, Salvador Ramos, 18, killed 19 elementary students and two teachers Tuesday. He was killed by law enforcement.
“I’m not sure that there are any appropriate words that could capture the feelings and thoughts of educators throughout ECISD, but know that we are horrified at having seen that and just cannot imagine the unspeakable trauma that those kids, parents and teachers are going through and what their entire community is going through at this time,” Muri said.
He added that the district has reached out to the people in Uvalde.
“One of the things that is most needed right now is social-emotional support; families and friends, that entire community, the students and staff members at that school need significant support. We have experts in our own system and we’ve offered their expertise, if needed, to that community and we will continue to support them,” Muri said.
“We’ve learned through our own tragic experience in Ector County from August of 2019 that trauma does not disappear after a day, a week or a month. It is sustained for a long period of time, and just as those from other parts of the country continue to support our needs as a community, we will continue to support the needs of that small community here in Texas,” he added.
In response to that, ECISD has heightened its own security on its campuses.
School ended Thursday and extra officers from the ECISD police, Odessa Police Department, Ector County Sheriff’s Office and Texas Department of Public Safety are on and around campuses.
“We appreciate the local law enforcement officials that are in conjunction with our own police department are ensuring that our kids and staff members remain safe on their campuses, as well as (at) events,” Muri said.
Graduations for Permian and Odessa High School are tonight and Saturday, respectively.
“… We will have heightened security and awareness at each of those events as well,” Muri said.
“In addition, moms and dads, we know that having these very difficult conversations with your own children can be traumatic and difficult and so we have supports for you as well on the ECISD website. (On) the very front page we’ve made available some conversation starters, so as a parent what do you say, how do you talk with your child about these traumatic situations. All of that information is available on the ECISD website, www.ectorcountyisd.org. There is a link on the very front page that will take you to our social-emotional, or mental health resources …,” he added.
Muri said children may not be ready to talk about it today, tomorrow or even next week.
“… But at some point … our children at every age are going to need to have a conversation about what they’re hearing and what they’re reading and what they’re perceiving. It may dredge up memories from our own community’s tragedy two years ago …,” Muri said.
He noted that this is graduation season.
“… We wish to congratulate all the students who will be making their way across the stage and receiving a high school diploma,” Muri said.
“One of the interesting things about our seniors is that many of them have already graduated from college. Many of our students take … dual credit courses from Odessa College and their graduation was two weeks ago, so many of our students walked across that stage receiving a college school diploma and then this week a high school diploma. We really appreciate and applaud the extra effort on the part of those students,” Muri said.
“The summer presents an opportunity for our students to continue to not only receive some additional learning through the summer learning program, but to get sustenance — both breakfast and lunch.”
“Our annual summer feeding program will continue through this summer in ECISD,” Muri said.
Information as to times and locations is on the website, he said.
“None of our students need to go hungry this summer. We recognize that many of our students really depend upon our schools five days a week for breakfast and lunch and we want to continue that throughout the summer months,” Muri said.
The Texas House and Senate were in session this week. “Committees for those two bodies, specifically the education committee, were beginning to study their interim charges and the education committees each had a series of charges that they were exploring. This week, Ector County ISD was invited to speak to both the House and the Senate as they explored their interim charges.
“Our purpose was to discuss with them some of the work we’re doing in Ector County and the success we’re having, specifically around our human capital work; that is recruiting, attracting and retaining great teachers,” Muri said.
“They wanted to know how we’re doing that. What are the strategies that we’re using and having success with in ECISD. How could the state better leverage those strategies across the state of Texas, so that as a whole we could attract, recruit and retain great teachers throughout the state of Texas,” he said.
“In addition to that, they were interested in learning about how we are addressing the learning loss of our students. (They were) specifically interested in our virtual tutoring and outcomes-based contracting work that we’re doing, as well as the summer learning work that’s happening in ECISD,” Muri added.
