As police presence decreases at Tippin Elementary, concerns over safety continue

Following the tragic deadly accident at Tippin Elementary School, the El Paso Independent School District committed to increasing its police presence at the school.

District police officers were stationed at the school to monitor drivers as parents dropped off and picked up their children.

But less than two weeks since 58-year-old Roger Hawkins ran over and killed Kharisma James and injured three students, the district is no longer allocating as many officers to the school.

“I t seems that things are starting to fade away. this morning we didn’t have policemen here outside of the school,” parent Jose Castro said. “T his morning we didn’t have policemen here outside of the school.”

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District board president Trent Hatch said EPISD doesn’t have adequate resources to have a continued police presence at Tippin.

“W e have 91 schools within our EPISD district. We have approximately 52 police officers,” Hatch said. “J ust as important as it is at Tippin to have a police presence, it’s that same priority at all the other schools within our district.”

Hatch said the EPISD Chief of Police is the one who decides which officers go where.

Castro walks his daughter to and from school everyday. He said on Friday he noticed drivers weren’t as cautious as they were before.

“Incidents like that can happen again. People need to be more careful. They need to be more aware that the decisions they make can affect somebody or somebody’s family forever,” Castro said.

The district is continuing to meet with parents to look for ways to make its campuses safer during the pick-up and drop-off times.

“W e have thousands and thousands of drop offs every single day within our school district. Every campus is responsible to ensure that we’re applying appropriate policies and procedures that are safe and secure for all of our students,” Hatch said.

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