KERR COUNTY, Texas - Of the nearly 1,300 school districts in Texas, at least 110 allow staff to carry firearms on campus, according to the Texas Association of School Boards.
Medina Independent School District has a sign outside of its building that reads, “Please be aware that the staff at Medina ISD may be armed and will use whatever force is necessary to protect our students.”
The Medina ISD superintendent did not return our calls to confirm if some teachers are, in fact, armed.
Hunt ISD did confirm some staff members have been armed since 2013.
"They [the school board] just felt like that it would enable us to keep our students safe based on the long possible wait time of getting law enforcement here,” Superintendent Crystal Dockery said.
Hunt ISD is in rural Kerr County. Dockery said the board made the decision to allow some staff members to be armed because it could take anywhere from one minute to 20 minutes for law enforcement to arrive since the county is large. For safety reasons, she could not share which teachers or how many are armed. Only she and local law enforcement know that information.
"If someone is approved to carry, they go through a psychological assessment very similar to a school marshal program that's allowed here in Texas,” Dockery said. “They also have to have a CHL and they would also go through training with law enforcement in our area."
As an administrator who has lived through a shooting at an Amarillo school in the 90s, Dockery is keeping a close eye on the outcry from Florida students who are demanding change after last week's school shooting.
"It's not about taking someone's weapon from them. The gun isn't the biggest issue. The biggest issue is what's going on in the minds of the people who are using these guns in the way that they're being used."
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CARTHAGE, Texas (KTAL) — As the national debate heats up over whether teachers should be armed in classrooms, an East Texas school district has already implemented a program that does just that. School leaders say they want to be prepared for the worst case scenario.
Outside every Carthage Independent School District building, you will see a sign alerting visitors that staff may be armed inside.
“When I got into education, thinking about being armed or having to arm staff was the furthest from my imagination,” Superintendent Dr. Glenn Hambrick said. “I would never think that we would be at this place.”
Carthage ISD implemented its “Guardian” program in 2014. Hambrick says the Sandy Hook school shooting is what prompted the school district to take action.
“Even if you have an officer, which is also nice to have — they know who the officer is, but they don’t know who the guardians are. I think that’s what makes it the deterrent, is they really don’t know who it is that will confront them,” Hambrick said of a potential shooter.
All guardians go through extensive training at a facility that trains law enforcement officers across the country. “The main thing is that they would be able to confront an armed intruder and protect the kids.”
Every time there’s another school shooting, Hambrick says it serves as a reminder for staff members. “After this you see more people at the range and making sure that they’re where they need to be in their training,” Hambrick said, adding that the school district has a shooting range and training for staff members is ongoing.
Before the district approved the “Guardian” program, a survey was given to community members and staff — 85 percent approved arming teachers at Carthage schools.