Texas School Districts Allowing Armed Employees

Texas public schools are more and more allowing staff to carry firearms to be able to respond to threats such as school shootings.  Since the Sandy Hook shooting, Texas is one of eight other states that have passed laws allowing staff to carry firearms. At least 78 of Texas’ 1,024 districts have reported adopting a “school guardian” plan in which designated staff are authorized to carry a gun, according to the Texas Association of School Boards.  The seven other states that passed legislation to allow school employees to carry guns are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Tennessee.

Texas passed the law last year that allows schools to designate workers—including teachers—as “marshals” who have access to guns on school premises.  The bill allows school districts and charter schools to place one armed marshal on campus for every 400 students. After 80 hours of training, the marshals could bring a weapon on campus. Their identities would not be subject to public records law.

Teachers are already permitted to carry guns in class with the permission of their local school boards, though few districts have granted permission.  Still, some Texas schools believe they must at least consider arming their employees.  In Harrold, Texas the school board voted to let teachers bring guns to school.

“We don’t have money for a security guard, but this is a better solution,” Superintendent David Thweatt said. “A shooter could take out a guard or officer with a visible, holstered weapon, but our teachers have master’s degrees, are older and have had extensive training and their guns are hidden. We can protect our children.”

However, Mr. Thweatt, has some reservations about the marshal program having too many precautions, including a rule that requires certain marshals to keep their guns in a “locked and secured safe.”  “That’s almost like saying you can have a car but the engine has to be out,” he said.

There is some disagreement, however, about the best way to give employees such access and some law enforcement officials have warned lawmakers that teachers with guns were at risk of being shot by police responding to emergencies at school.