'THE WOLF IS IN THE HENHOUSE'
WHEN TEXAS CITY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL District Superintendent Rodney Cavness heard about the shooting at Santa Fe High School on the morning of May 18, he sped the 30 minutes down the road to do what he could to help.
Cavness is a gruff conservative who once promised to put President Obama’s guidelines for transgender students’ bathroom use “straight to the paper shredder.” His shaved head, broad shoulders and trimmed silver goatee give him the appearance of a retired WWE wrestler. That dark day last spring shook something loose in Cavness: It was time to stop hemming and hawing and get serious about securing his schools.
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 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 about 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.
“When you’re resorting to a lot of hardening methods and law enforcement-focused methods,
