Prevention against reaction, the importance of IDAs
On April 24th, 2025 Lubbock ISD Board of Trustees met to discuss their findings within their district wide intruder detection audit.
Intruder Detection Audits (IDAs) were introduced by Gov. Gregg Abbott in the wake of the Uvalde school massacre in 2022. Abbott originally urged both the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Texas School Safety Center (TxSSC) to further expand upon their safety measures by implementing routine checks on school campuses in Texas.
IDAs, according to the TEA, check to see if a school’s campus is easily accessible through exterior doors as well as maintain that exterior doors and classrooms are properly latched and locked.
Fifth-year superintendent, Kathy Rollo, explained how over 90% of Lubbock campuses have been audited and that there has been only one intrusion finding within the district since their last report.
“Shane Anderson does a great job of making sure that the campus is trained,” She said. “And that the issues are all addressed and [the intrusion finding] has been addressed.”
Shane Anderson is the current Director of School Safety and Security for all of Lubbock ISD schools. Rollo did not include details of the intrusion finding for safety reasons.
Founded in 1999 at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX, the TxSSC helps enforce the Texas Education Code (TEC), Section §37.1084, which mandates all school districts to implement a multi-hazard emergency operations plan (EOP).
EOPs essentially detail the importance of schools submitting these audits in an effort to create a plan focused on prevention and recovery in the case of an emergency such as a school shooting.
According to the TxSSC District Audit Report (DAR,) only 40% of school districts across Texas have actively conducted school shooting drills within their initial EOP.
This statistic raises some concern as according to the World Population Review, Texas is ranked at No. 2 for the most school shootings nationwide.
DAR also reported that Texas districts roughly only allot 8.5% of their funds towards mental health and counselors, as well as only 6.4% of funds geared towards behavioral health services.
Rollo emphasized her confidence within LISD’s safety and security team.
“We do our own internal audits on a weekly basis at every campus to ensure that we are doing what we need to do to keep our students and staff safe.”
The great pains of protecting the Great Plains
Trump’s administration has created a reality of staff shortages, government defunding, and threatened conservation efforts within national parks that has had rippling effects throughout the country.
Executive orders given by the U.S. Secretary of Interior, Doug Burgum, and the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, announced on April 3 that national parks shall remain in operation over the summer despite staff cuts, as well as open up national forests to 60% of logging.
Many national parks are currently struggling with shortened staff, so the notion to keep parks open has led to an increased concern not only for park maintenance as well as park safety.
“Park staff do a lot,” said Texas Tech senior, Daniel Ozlowski, who is majoring in natural resource management with a minor in conservation. “They are the ones responsible for general building maintenance. They're the ones who are at the ticket desk… They're the ones working on trails, making sure they are safe to travel, making sure campsites are in good condition…”
Ozlowski went on to explain how the mass layoffs within the national park workforce have additionally affected the job market for future graduates and students wishing to pursue a career within the field.
“A lot of the job prospects that I would have just from an undergraduate degree alone in this field, not looking at grad school, would be working for the Park Service or Forest Service,” he said. “I would have been looking at either a lab technician position or forest or park service. And forest and park service were actively laying off and research funding is getting cut, so both those [jobs] dried up seemingly overnight.”
Dr. Matthew Barnes, an associate professor within Texas Tech’s Department of Natural Resources Management, explained how deforestation is very common within national parks, but the way in which those resources are being used may be harmful to the environment.
“I tell my class this, the best way to conserve water would be to stop using it, right,” he said. “But that would mean no more drinking, cooking, bathing, plumbing, and it's clearly not a realistic policy strategy. And so it's always going to be about striking that balance between use and conservation or use for one purpose, use for another purpose.”
Texas, Waco representative, Pat Curry, introduced bill 4938 March 13, initially calling for the abolishment of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, claiming that their functions would “transfer to the General Land Office, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Public Safety.” This concerned conservationists as Texas averages about less than 5% of public land.
Texas houses 16 national parks, the most notable of which being Big Bend National Park. Senate Bill 1059 introduces the Big Bend National Park Boundary Adjustment Act, which would add 6,100 acreage to the park's border.
According to KWTX, Curry then shut down his original bill, explaining the bill itself intended to focus on the hunting, breeding of wild deer as well as focus on controlling chronic wasting disease within deer populations, rather than disturbing Texas parks and public land.
Barnes explained that when people are exposed to nature, they tend to care more about conservation and develop a deeper appreciation for the environment.
“Public parks, national parks are [peoples] opportunity to be able to see [nature] to be able to experience [the] outdoors and so maintaining those parks and keeping the parks open is really-it's a justice issue,” he said.“It's a human health issue. There's so much more than just the park itself at stake.”
Lubbock ISD Celebrates Lady Plainsmen for State Win
On March 13, 2025, Lubbock ISD held a meeting recognizing various students around the district who qualified for state. This included a variety of different competitions and state championships, one of which includes the recognition of Monterey High School’s girls’ basketball team.
The Lady Plainsmen of Monterey High School, under the coaching of Jill Schneider, received the official title of Class 5A Division II state champions after a 64-35 win over Liberty Hill High School on March 1.
This is the first time since 1981 in which Monterey has won the title in girls basketball. Their previous championship had included a 72-71 win over Duncanville High School over 40 years ago.
Mike Meeks, Lubbock ISD executive director of athletics, congratulated the 2025 team for their historic win. He went on to say how the 1981 team is still remembered fondly to this day after they were inducted into the Lubbock ISD Hall of Honor back in 2021.
“Ladies, there will be a day for you,” Meeks said. “There will be a day for you to come back and be inducted in the Lubbock ISD Hall of Honor and we look forward to that day.”
Meeks continued with his congratulations, insisting every member of the team deserved the title of state champion before receiving their recognition. He also praised the team work of senior point guard Aaliyah Chavez, who led the team with 19 points, along with junior guard Ambrosia Cole and junior center Ari Johnson who helped score during the game.
“If you watched the game or saw the game,” he said. “You know that it was truly a team effort.”
Chavez was named the most valuable player during the game. She is Monterey’s top scorer, having earned a total of over 4,777 points during her high school career.
Chavez herself was unable to attend this meeting as she was chosen to compete in the 2025 McDonald’s All-American Games. The games will be held in Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, on April 1.
The McDonald’s All-American Games, created in 1977 to showcase high school athletes on a national scale, pits East vs West against each other. Chavez will play for the West team.
As a long standing tradition within the games, Chavez was presented with the signature jersey which will hang in Monterey High School. Meeks went on to say that the jersey will showcase Chavez’s accomplishments and serve as inspiration for future athletes to come.
This event has hosted many players who would go on to compete in the WNBA including Candace Parker, Skylar Diggins, and Breanna Stewart. This is yet another title added to Chavez’s impressive record.
Chavez’s titles include the Texas MaxPreps 2024-25 High School Girls Basketball Player of the Year and the 2025 Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year.
In a video from Monterey High School, Chavez was presented the Gatorade trophy for player of the year by 2016 WNBA MVP Nneka Ogwumike on March 19. Chavez joins a historical list of players for this award which includes Ogwumike herself who played at Cy-Fair high school in 2007 in Cypress, Texas.
Texas Tech Athletes arrested following Midland Scrimmage
Four Texas Tech football players were arrested early Sunday morning, March 25 for charges related to damaged property and civil disturbance.
The individuals arrested were athletes, Christian Taylor, Jett Duffey, Desmon Smith, and Furqan Yusef Short were arrested outside of a local nightclub for charges related to property damage to cars and an apartment building as well as general civil disturbance within a crowd. These arrests occurred after the team held a spring scrimmage in Midland on Saturday, March 24.
Texas Tech officers were dispatched to Bash Riprocks located at 2419 Main St. after receiving a call for a disturbance as well as a potentially armed individual at 1:54 a.m. Sunday morning. When officers arrived at the scene, a crowd of people were seen blocking the driveway and disrupting the flow of traffic.
Lieutenant Brady Cross spoke in a press conference about how there were 10 total arrests made; 8 of which were charged with disorderly conduct and 2 for disrupted property. Around two-dozen officers were deployed to deal with the surge of people as well as the K-9 unit. No gun had been found at the scene.
Cross went on to compliment the work of the Lubbock Police Department for acting swiftly and effectively given the amount of people within the initial crowd.
“I hope at the end of the day the public knows and understands that we are there to respond to calls for service and keep, overall, everyone safe.” Cross said. “And at times what it takes to keep everyone safe is to take people to jail.”
Cross explained that police and the athletics legal teams were in contact and made sure to remind the athletics department that the football players involved would not receive special treatment.
Zelena Garcia, a student at Texas Tech University, spoke about how one of the football players had intentionally slapped the windshield of her car. According to Garcia, the player had slapped her car twice, causing the windshield to crack and spiderweb.
“Everybody was just kind of like screaming in shock,” she said. “Not like terror, but like shock that he was able to break my windshield.”
Police in the area had seen the commotion and were able to arrest the individual right away as seen by the camera footage released by the Lubbock Police Department.
“I'm glad [the police] were there because it wasn't like a our word against theirs, because it was caught all on camera.” Garcia said.
The individual responsible for the damage to Garcia’s car was Texas Tech linebacker, Christian Taylor. It was after Taylor’s initial arrest that the crowd became more agitated. Quarterback Jett Duffey was also arrested for damaging property to an apartment complex at the scene. Defensive back Desmon Smith, received medical care after being bit by one of the K-9 units; he was later taken to the Lubbock County Detention Center.
Texas Tech Athletics released a statement offered by Matt Dowdy later Sunday Morning: “Texas Tech Athletics was made aware this morning of an incident involving members of our football program. We are still looking into the matter at this time.”