The Wolf is in the Henhouse; a former Secret Service agent does what it takes to secure schools

[mountaineer]

"The Wolfe is in the Henhouse"
A former Secret Service agent pledges to do whatever it takes to secure schools in Texas City ISD - and he couldn't care less what you think
by Justin Miller
March 25, 2019

... In the aftermath of shootings, school administrators have been under immense pressure from parents to do something, anything, to provide a sense of safety. That has fueled a school security boom, with the $3 billion industry selling administrators on everything from fortified doors and high-tech cameras to social media monitoring services and bulletproof backpack inserts. But as (school superintendent) Cavness saw it, most districts weren’t getting at the heart of the matter. He wanted to forge a new path, one unconstrained by concerns of public perception or political correctness, one that would allow the district to protect students and staff just like any red-blooded Texan would protect their own family. To do that, he needed an expert with sharp elbows.

By the following Monday morning, he had hired Mike Matranga, a decorated former U.S. Secret Service agent who grew up in the area, to serve as the district’s first school security czar.  ...

... With Cavness and a supportive school board’s blessing, Matranga has taken things further than in any other Texas school district — using surveillance technology to try to root out threats before they happen, hardening buildings to make it more difficult for a shooter to get in and putting more “boots on the ground” in the event that an attacker does penetrate a school.

At his direction, the 9,000-student district has already spent more than $5 million on a facial recognition camera surveillance system; AR-15s; real-time student tracking devices; eight additional Galveston County sheriff’s deputies (for a total of 19), who work as school liaison officers; and state-of-the art hardware to secure entryways and automatically lock classroom doors.  ...

Read more at Texas Observer

Is your school district (or church) safe?

[mountaineer]

I heard of this guy from a post on Facebook:

Michael Matranga
2 hrs ·

PSA: Citizens of Texas City and La Marque, for 4 days now I have been in my Jeep with an unknown to anyone male conducting Vulnerability Assessments at every school. We have been driving through school and public property, walking on sidewalks, through private businesses, neighborhoods, standing on rooftops, overhead walkways shooting distances with range finders, using binoculars and taking notes.

We have had hundreds of cars passing us, people sitting on their front porches watching us, walking within feet from us, sitting in their cars smoking cigarettes right next to us and in 4 days one vigilant soul had the situational awareness to say “hey that doesn’t look right”. Keep in mind neither of us had on any identifying clothing and were in a civilian, unmarked Jeep.

So with that said if any of you wanna know why places of worship and schools are soft targets it’s because the vast majority of people’s situational awareness is at an all time low , people don’t want to get involved or they just don’t care until staff, students or worshippers are dead. Please everyone keep your head up and on a swivel, do your part, it’s part of my plan. I have to have that level of vigilance to make this work. I’ll happily be the Sheepdog!!! Thanks to Mr. Walker across from Kohfeldt Elementary for having enough sense to not only call the police (which I had already briefed) but to confront us. That’s all, Mike

Pretty scary. School children are sitting ducks - and all the bump stock bans and background checks in the world will do nothing to help them.