East Central ISD weighs program that would arm staff members
No action is taken by board after warnings, praise for proposal
East Central Independent School District trustees discussed joining a program that allows the arming of school staffers but took no action on it Tuesday night after hearing both warnings and praise for the idea along with pleas for more time for parents to talk about it.
The board heard and discussed a recommendation behind closed doors from a committee of about 20 community members who researched the state’s “guardian plan,” which allows school boards to authorize certain staffers to carry firearms and set training standards for them.
Earlier, about a dozen parents addressed the board in a sometimes contentious public comment period, with several saying they were caught off guard by the proposal.
“You had a committee, you had an agenda, but you didn’t have whole community input,” parent and teacher Priscilla Garcia said.
She called for a detailed plan to be shared with the community before a vote is taken.
Another parent, Heather Ramon-Ayala, said she was concerned about the mental state of staffers who might carry weapons, and she started to describe being told about a teacher having a breakdown last week. Some audience members booed when board president Steve Bryant interrupted to ask that Ayala not talk about personnel. “We’re talking about arming staff,” another said.
Josh Felker, owner of Lone Star Handgun, said the three-minute average response time of East Central ISD police could be bridged in an emergency by trained staff, whom he compared to fire extinguishers that stop the destruction of a fire.
“How many kids were killed by fire extinguishers?” asked Keith Keilmann, a parent.
“How many extinguishers have stopped fires?” Felker responded as Bryant tried to quell the argument. “We don’t need to wait until a school shooter shows up at our schools.”
Bryant predicted before the meeting that trustees might take “some action” but said he didn’t think the board would be ready to appoint staffers to the program, though the agenda allowed it. He said the board would need to have policies in place before approving participants.
More than 170 school districts statewide have a local version of the guardian plan, the Texas Association of School Boards said this year. It is the more flexible of two options school districts have for arming employees. It allows school boards to determine training standards. The other allows boards to authorize employees to be school “marshals” but requires licensing by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement after a minimum amount of training.
Bryant said he favors a training program more stringent than that offered under the marshal program and wants staffers to be able to carry their weapons, rather than have them available in a particular location.
The marshal program is “too restrictive and does not allow the board to specify the amount of training,” Bryant said. “In my opinion, it’s not adequate.”
Michelle Rodriguez, a mother of two seventh-graders at Legacy Middle School, said she is concerned that parents weren’t adequately consulted as the committee worked toward a recommendation. “I don’t expect every parent to be notified. I understand that’s not easy. But I do feel something should have went out, maybe a survey. The board members, they represent districts. How come my board member didn’t send out a mailer or visit a PTA meeting?” Rodriguez said.
Parents were included among the stakeholder groups the committee consulted, including a council of PTA representatives, district spokeswoman Ashley Chohlis said in an email. The recommendation called for extensive and continuing training, including firearms instruction, mental health awareness, de-escalation techniques and school safety best practices, she said.
Bryant said board members have been mulling ways to bolster school security for “a number of years” and had sought community input in previous meetings. He noted some schools in the district have been renovated with hardened entrances and other safety measures by the district’s 2016 bond.
“This is the next logical progression in our working to create safe environments to our students and our staff,” Bryant said.