SANTA FE, Texas – The Santa Fe Independent School District Board voted unanimously to request an outside review of district safety policies and procedures more than six years after a mass shooting at Santa Fe High School claimed the lives of eight students and two educators. Board members agreed to partner with the Community Oriented Policing Services office of the US Department of Justice.
This is the same office that conducted the review of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. This is not a criminal investigation into what happened in May 2018, but a review of how the district responded to the mass shooting and the policies and procedures that have been implemented since the murders.
“I do want to emphasize that this, we have talked to them, we being the school district, about how we can work together as a partnership. This is not something that we are doing with the City of Santa Fe, or the county of Galveston, or the State of Texas. This is something that Santa Fe ISD is pursuing with this piece of the Department of Justice,” board president J.R. Norman said during the Oct. 15 school board meeting.
Norman added once the review is complete, the information will be added to on-going efforts to better safeguard schools across the country. The COPS office does not have subpoena powers and municipalities have to request this type of review. DOJ officials have previously told KPRC 2 Investigates they are ready to assist Santa Fe if asked.
Santa Fe ISD superintendent, Dr. Kevin Bott, will now file a formal a request with the COPS office and hash out a scope of work. Once the review is complete the findings will be made public.
Parents of children killed during the mass shooting have long asked for an independent review of what happen in May 2018. Earlier this year retired Secret Service agent and former head of safety and security for Texas City ISD, Mike Matranga, sent a formal request to DOJ on behalf of several family members of those killed and survivors.
Rosie Stone, mother of Chris Stone, worries this type of review won’t answer all the questions she and other parents have been asking for the last six years. Several members have also repeatedly criticized Gov. Greg Abbott for not following through on a promised, 3rd party independent review of the shooting.
“I just don’t understand our shooting at all. The question still remains, why are we so different? Why can’t we have an independent review of the failures of May 18th, just like Parkland and Uvalde? Why are we getting a review of what they have done going forward?” Stone wrote in a statement to KPRC 2. “One thing people need to understand is they haven’t been working on this, it was up until a few months ago, because I brought it to their attention with Mike’s help. If I hadn’t said anything, none of this would be happening. If I wouldn’t be still on this justice journey for my son, they wouldn’t be doing anything. This was my outcome, a review of the aftermath, not why my son left in a body bag. I know who pulled the trigger, but he also had help from the school district’s negligence.”
School district officials have previously denied there were any missteps in how the district responded on the day of the shooting. Board members did say the district previously asked the Texas School Safety Center to review its policies and procedures to make sure they were doing everything possible to safeguard students. The findings of that report were not made public.
The charged gunman, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, remains incompetent to stand trial.
Several parents of children who were killed and survivors sued Pagourtzis’ parents and the online ammunition retailer who sold the charged gunman the ammunition used during the mass shooting. A Galveston County jury did not find the parents were responsible for what happened and the while the online retailer was found partially at fault, no damages could be awarded since the company already settled with the families. The jury found Pagourtzis himself was largely responsible for the mass shooting.
If you would like to learn more about the Santa Fe mass school shooting. KPRC 2 Investigates ‘The Evidence Room, Long Hallway’ provides a personal, detailed account of what happened on May 18, 2018.
