Guards fired over unattended guns

Fort Bend ISD pulls 2 contracted agents from elementary schools

Two security guards have been let go from their contracted positions with Fort Bend ISD after separate incidents where they left firearms unattended at elementary schools, district officials say.

One guard left their handgun in a staff bathroom at Sullivan Elementary School in January, and another left their gun holstered in a “duty belt” in an empty classroom at Sugar Mill Elementary School earlier this month, according to a district statement.

Employees intervened before any students handled the weapons, officials said.

At Sullivan Elementary, a teacher found the gun in a staff bathroom and notified an administrator to retrieve it. And at Sugar Mill Elementary, students saw the weapon in the empty classroom, but a staff member was present to ensure students stayed away.

The armed guards from private security firms, VETS Securing America and Andy Frain, were hired by the district in an attempt to comply with the armed guard mandate passed by the most recent legislative session. The district used a Voter Approved Tax Rate Election tax increase, which passed in November 2023, to supply the $2.5 million needed to hire the 50 guards to comply with the law.

Fort Bend ISD leadership chose to hire armed private security instead of more police officers to keep costs down and because there is a national shortage of law enforcement officers, according to a district statement about the election.

The goal is for a Fort Bend ISD police officer to fill every security position in the district, the statement read, but that will not be possible until the district can offer competitive salaries.

The two guards have been subsequently removed from their posts in the district, although that does not mean they have lost their jobs at the security firms they represent.

Fort Bend ISD officials said the district police are working closely with the outside contractors to ensure that the district’s safety protocols are followed at all times by all armed guards.

In a public Fort Bend ISD parents Facebook group, parents aired concerns about an ABC13 news story about the security guards, with one commenting, “This is something our board of trustees should be looking into! Not banning books!! … I’m way more terrified of guns in our schools than books about sex in our schools.”

Her comment referred to recent discussion in the Facebook group spurred by a since-removed post Trustee David Hamilton made Monday about potentially inappropriate content in schools, including an excerpt of the book with a sex scene. Hamilton asked if pastors in the group could comment on the book’s appropriateness. One pastor said he would be willing to speak with Hamilton in person, but Hamilton said he wanted the pastor to answer the question on Facebook.

The back-and-forth has brought many parents and community members to the page in recent days, even some outside the Fort Bend ISD community, including Dale Inman, a former Conroe ISD trustee who was the subject of federal civil rights complaints.

He commented on one parent’s post, “If parents want their children to read garbage, they are welcome to let their children read garbage and indoctrinate them with harmful materials. It is not the taxpayers responsibility to provide trash to children.”

When another parent asked why he was commenting in a Fort Bend community group though he lives elsewhere, he responded that he had friends in the district, and that as long as any school district takes money from the state Legislature, he considers himself a taxpayer in that district.