Texas GOP officials call for arming more teachers after Uvalde
UVALDE, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - In the wake of the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, some state Republicans called for arming more teachers.
Texas schools already have the ability to arm teachers and staff by either appointing school marshals or implementing a "Guardian plan."
According to the state, there are currently 243 license school marshals in Texas, employed by a total of 62 school districts. The names of those districts and the names of the marshals are confidential.
Marshals are required to take an 80-hour training course from a law enforcement academy and be up to date on all licensing and certification.
The "Guardian plan" doesn't have uniform requirements. School boards can pass their own policies authorizing employees to carry guns on campus and determining the specific training those guardians need.
In North Texas, the Keene, Weatherford, Millsap, Argyle and Rio Vista ISDs have either armed marshals or guardians in place. The hope is that having employees with guns on campuses helps prevent them from becoming targets in the first place.
It's also about response time.
"Being that we're a ways out, some of the response to come to our aid is pretty far – it could take 10 to 15 minutes – and as we know, if we've got an active threat, we've got to cut that time down," said Rio Vista ISD Police Chief Ronny Potts.
Chief Potts says it takes the right kind of person to become a guardian.
"I make sure before any of our people are going to be carrying that firearm, that they are very well trained and capable, mentally as well as physically, to do the job that they need to do in that event," he said.
Experts say training is critical.
"I underscore the word highly and effectively trained, that would be trained frequently, and that would have the opportunity to coordinate with law enforcement," said Dr. Alex del Carmen, the associate dean of the School of Criminology at Tarleton State University in Fort Worth. "I do think that that it would provide some degree of resistance."
There's no real data to support the idea that armed teachers can stop a school shooting.
Critics say it's unrealistic to expect educators to go from classroom teacher to expert marksman in seconds if there's a threat, especially with students around.
"As we've heard and seen in the situation in Uvalde, even the trained ones at a time of real crisis don't always make the right decisions," said Rena Honea, president of Alliance-AFT, which represents more than 5,000 school employees in Dallas. "And there are definite, long-lasting consequences for those choices."
There is also concern that when there is a gun in the classroom, a student could get access to it, either intentionally or by accident, and cause harm.
Given what happened at Robb Elementary School this week, Dr. del Carmen says it's worth at least looking into the idea of arming more teachers.
"We need to revisit safety protocols at every single school, at every single level, in every jurisdiction in the state of Texas," he said. "I really believe that."
