Mother walks through Texas high school without being stopped, calls for better security
“I want our children and kids to be safe," she told ABC News.
— -- One mother made a statement to her local school district by filming herself walking inside of her daughter's high school undetected.
In the wake of last week's deadly shooting in Parkland, Florida, Stacey Alderete, whose daughter goes to South San High School in San Antonio, Texas, said she wondered what more could have been done to protect the children.
“You see those kids broken," Alderete told ABC News. "I don’t want to see that happen in our district or anywhere else.”
While dropping her daughter off at school on Tuesday and going to bring paperwork to the school’s office, Alderete decided to dress up like a student, even wearing a backpack, and test the school's security, capturing her journey on video.
There are no officers or security visible in the video. A few students are seen in the hallway midway through her filming.
“We have AMAZING officers but unfortunately not enough and are VERY SHORT HANDED,” Alderete wrote on Facebook, along with the video. “There are no longer officers on the weekend and evening patrol.”
The South San Antonio Independent School District did not respond to multiple requests for comment from ABC News, but told ABC affiliate KSAT that the “safety protocol at our schools requires that all visitors, including parents, first check in at the front desk.”
“Principals are given the discretion to determine which exterior doors must remain locked at all times. Most elementary principals keep all exterior doors locked. Because of the requirement to change classes every hour at the middle and high school, most secondary schools do not lock most exterior doors, but security cameras and police officers constantly monitor exterior doors,” the district said.
According to Alderete, the district is dealing with significant budget concerns and removed officers from various schools.
Up until November 2016, Alderete was a board member for the district and at one time every elementary school and junior high school had at least one officer stationed at each school, but that is no longer the case, according to Alderete.
Alderete claimed to KSAT that the school district wants to scale back on security as part of upcoming budget cuts. The district disputed that characterization.
“Seven million dollars in potential budget reductions were discussed at the last meeting and these reductions impact many departments and areas in the school district. The police department was only one of many areas discussed. These proposed reductions are simply at the discussion level at this time. Final decisions will be made when the budget is adopted in August,” a district spokesperson told KSAT.
According to the district, there are four officers assigned to the high school, two at each middle school, and two for the nine elementary schools, KSAT reported.
Alderete told ABC News that the response to her video has been mixed. Some people have praised it, while others have criticized her for showing people how easy it is to get in the school.
But Alderete said she does not regret posting the video.
“I want our children and kids to be safe and I want our staff to be safe,” Alderete said. “We can’t control what happens in Washington but as parents we have authority and can control what happens here.”