Santa Fe rally will support arming teachers
Event planning began just days after shooting
SANTA FE — Nearly a month after a 17-year-old gunman opened fire on Santa Fe High School, killing 10 and wounding 13, most flags around town remain at half-staff. It is difficult to find an electrical pole or large tree without yellow and green ribbon around its base. At Runge Park, located in the heart of this rural Galveston County community, colorful cups pushed into chain-link fencing spell “Santa Fe Strong.”
More political messages, however, could start pushing their way into town this weekend.
A group of statewide gun advocates plan to hold a rally in favor of arming teachers at Runge Park on Saturday. The Carry for Our Kids assembly was planned days after the shooting, according to the This is Texas Freedom Force, which planned the event.
The planned rally stands in contrast to protests held after the February shooting near Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. There, a sizable number of students and victims’ families began calling on lawmakers to restrict the sale of assault rifles and to make it more difficult for folks with criminal histories, mental health
“We wanted to have an honest conversation to let people know there are two sides of the story.”
Brandon Burkhardt, president of This is Texas Freedom Force
issues and dishonorable military discharges to obtain firearms. Their actions spurred national protests, including several student walkouts in the spring and a March for Our Lives event that drew hundreds of thousands in Washington, D.C., and scores of others in cities across the country.
Brandon Burkhardt, president of This is Texas Freedom Force, said restricting gun sales and use is not a viable solution adding that law enforcement responses can take too long in active shooter situations and waiting for help to arrive no longer is the best course of action.
According to Santa Fe ISD policy, only members of the district police department can carry firearms inside school building. Other school staff with a Texas handgun license may store a firearm inside a locked car in a school parking area, and staff may use firearms so long as they are part of a “district-approved activity supervised by property authorities.” Otherwise, district policy states that all weapons, including firearms, are prohibited on district property.
Other school districts, including Huffman ISD in the northwest greater Houston area, have approved plans to allow some teachers to carry guns on campus. Huffman ISD’s Board of Trustees opted for a “guardian plan,” which allows local school boards to dictate training standards, evaluations and policies that enable some teachers to be armed at school. Huffman ISD officials plan to create specific policies for their plan this summer.
Another program established by state law allows schools to select one staff member per 500 students to have a gun on campus. Those selected, known as “school marshals,” must complete 80 hours of training, undergo a psychological evaluation, hold a license to carry a firearm and be monitored by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.
No limits
Burkhardt said he would like to see Texas expand laws that allow teachers to carry guns on campus. If a teacher meets all requirements of the school marshal program, he or she should be able to carry a gun on campus without being selected or limited by school administration, he said.
C.J. Grisham, president of Open Carry Texas who is scheduled to speak at the rally, said if some teachers at the school had the option of being armed at the time of the Santa Fe High shooting, they could have worked with the school resource officers on site to slow the shooter. He said the point of the rally is to prevent similar school shootings.
He also pushed back on potential criticism about the timing and location of the rally.
“Why should our narrative have a time frame when the gun control narrative doesn’t?” Grisham said. “We want to stop these shootings. When is the best time to talk about stopping them? Had we been pushing gun control, these people wouldn’t argue that it’s too soon. They just don’t agree with our point of view.”
This is Texas Freedom Force has organized rallies statewide over the past few years, notably to protest the removal of Confederate statues and monuments in San Antonio.
Burkhardt said some ex-law enforcement officers and military veterans will provide security at Carry for Our Kids, along with local law enforcement officials. They will not, however, be dressed in fatigues or carry large firearms.
“For this occasion, most of our security guards will conceal carry and wear street clothes,” Burkhardt said. “We did that on purpose to make sure community doesn’t feel threatened or worried about what’s taking place.”
Santa Fe City Manager Joe Dickson said the Santa Fe Police Department, the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI were aware of the rally.
“As I understand, they do encourage their members to bring weapons and be sure to follow all the laws and regulations concerning the carry, whether concealed or open,” he added.
Honest conversation?
Danika McLeod, a 17year-old senior at Santa Fe High school whose brother, Kyle, was killed at the school, said she is not completely opposed to the idea of arming some teachers. She said allowing a small group of school staff to carry firearms — as long as their identities are unknown to students, they go through extensive training and they pass background checks — could allow for faster responses.
“That might have helped because I know in the classroom next to Kyle’s, there was a teacher who had training but he didn’t have a gun,” McLeod said. “He said if he had, he would have gone out there and killed (the shooter).”
She does not believe guns are the cure-all, however. She traveled to Dallas last week to speak at and participate in a “die-in” protest to bring awareness to gun violence. McLeod said she wished the Carry for Our Kids rally organizers had worked with Santa Fe students to host a discussion rather than a one-sided protest.
“If they would have asked, ‘Hey, how do you feel about this?’ we could explain,” McLeod said. “We’re smart kids. We can coherently tell you what we want.”
Others said they would welcome thoughtful discussions about whether to arm teachers. At Runge Park on Friday, Edward Orduna, who graduated from Santa Fe High decades ago, said he hoped the rally could be a jumping off point.
“If it’s a peaceful one and they listen to both sides, pros and cons, I don’t see a problem with it,” Orduna said. “But it’s never like that. It’s just now you have to question their motives. Are they doing it for that fact, or are they doing it to throw in their own agenda?”
Nearby, Erin Workman, who spent part of the morning at target practice with her boyfriend , said she did not have enough information to form an opinion on whether some teachers should be able to carry guns on campus. She, too, welcomed discussions on the subject but said she worries those could be in short supply Saturday.
“I think awareness is good. I just don’t know if a rally is the way to do it,” Workman said. “I feel like in a rally situation, everyone’s just screaming and not listening.”
Grisham and Burkhardt said several groups, including Open Carry Texas and the This is Texas Freedom Force, will have booths at the event where attendees can discuss the issue with gun advocates. Still, he said, the purpose of the event is to highlight those groups’ efforts to stem the spate of school shootings at the state level.
“We wanted to have an honest conversation to let people know there are two sides of the story,” Burk-hardt said. “Just because they’re hearing one side, we don’t want people to think that’s the only solution they have.”