The district is currently installing 5,000 new cameras across more than 50 school sites

The district is currently installing 5,000 new cameras across more than 50 school sites

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The district is currently installing 5,000 new cameras across more than 50 school sites

A week after 19 children and two teachers were killed by a gunman in Uvalde, Texas, the Twin Rivers Unified School District is evaluating safety and security at its more than 50 sites.

KCRA 3 toured Rio Linda High School with the school principal, the chief of the district's police department, school board members, and other law enforcement officials on Tuesday.

Currently, district officials say there are 1,500 security cameras across the district, but they are working to install 5,000 additional higher-definition cameras at school sites.

Once a month, every campus in the district including Rio Linda High School goes through what police call an "intruder training" to prepare all students and staff for a potential emergency.

"I could just promise parents that we'll make our campus as safe as possible," Principal Paul Orlando told KCRA 3. "I can't say nothing's ever going to happen, but we're going to make it as safe as possible."

According to Chief of Police David Lugo, Rio Linda is the district's last high school to have a fence around campus completed.

Its construction began about three weeks ago and should be finished in another month. KCRA 3 asked Lugo if the gate would be locked to the outside. Our crews noticed the gate openings were open and not locked during school hours.

"Usually, it just depends on the school site and the environment depending on if they're going to keep their gate locked the whole time," Lugo said. "This one is new so we're looking with the school administration, but others schools, yes, it's locked the whole time."

Every door of the school does have a device called a "Lock Blok" installed. The Lock Blok locks the door with one push of a button, blocking anyone outside a classroom or door to enter even if they have a key.

If a threat or intruder were to enter campus, this device allows teachers to lock the classroom from the inside instead of having to put themselves at risk by going outside.

KCRA 3 asked what the district's policy is for normally locking classroom doors during school hours.

Orlando said it is up to each teacher's discretion, but Lugo said he recommends all doors be locked while students are on campus.

Other tools used on campus are school resource officers, K-9s, and the CatapultEMS app. The app, which is to be downloaded by all school staff, allows law enforcement to alert all staff when there is an emergency on campus.

The app also enables teachers to directly communicate with law enforcement during an emergency.

KCRA 3 spoke with parent Alexandra Geer, who has two children attending Rio Linda High. She said she feels safe sending her children to school because of the safety measures that have been taken.

"The other day I was walking on campus and I was stopped because I didn't have my name tag on and I felt happy that they cared I was on campus and shouldn't have been without checking in at the office," she said.

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