A week after a gunman at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., killed 19 students and two teachers, Montgomery County officials discussed the school system’s safety protocols in the event of an active-shooter situation and other threats during a news conference Wednesday.

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       Interim superintendent Monifa B. McKnight said parents have conveyed that they’ve felt uneasy about their children’s safety since the shooting, adding that leaders had to address “the anxiety and fear our community has felt.”

       “I will be the first to tell you as the superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools, [safety] is absolutely my priority,” McKnight said. “It’s all of our priority.”

       McKnight, along with other system administrators, county council and police officials, detailed safety measures used at the county’s schools. Every entry point at the county’s 209 schools is locked. Visitors have to be buzzed in and register before they can enter a school. The school system and the county’s police agencies signed a contract in April bringing officers back into schools and defining how those officers respond to school-related incidents.

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       Officials also highlighted the school system’s expansion of mental health services at its high schools. Students have called for further expansion of related programs.

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       The Montgomery County school system, which is Maryland’s largest, has more school safety officers than any other in the state — with 252 of the state’s 942, according to Maryland’s School Safety dashboard. It’s followed by Prince George’s County school system, which has 240 trained officers.

       Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones noted police officers in the county have undergone active-shooting training since a mass shooting took place at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999. Since then, those trainings have been enhanced, he said, adding that detectives “do a lot of legwork” by talking to individuals who may be involved in making threats, and partnering with the school system to determine a response. And in the event of an active shooter, officers are trained to go in and eliminate a threat, even in areas such as portable classrooms outside of traditional school buildings.

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       “We don’t stop assessing. We don’t stop training,” Jones said. “We don’t stop planning on a worst-case scenario.”

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       The school system has also reviewed its safety plan after a 17-year-old student allegedly shot a 15-year-old student in a Magruder High School bathroom in January using a “ghost gun” — a firearm assembled from parts and sold in kits on the Internet without background checks. A report including an assessment of the school system’s handling of that incident has been submitted to state school safety officials for review.

       Wednesday’s safety update also came as a Maryland law took effect that banned the sale, receipt and transfer of ghost guns. Both County Executive Marc Elrich (D) and County Council President Gabe Albornoz (D-At Large) pointed to the legislation passed by the Maryland General Assembly in their remarks, adding the federal government needed to pass a similar item.

       “When we lose a student to violence and guns, we lost that battle no matter where it started,” Elrich said. “We have to do a better job. We have to learn to get involved before it’s too late.”