Texas students pack bookbags; teachers pack heat

[Refugee 7]

HARROLD, Texas (AP) — Along with normal first-day jitters and excitement, students in this tiny district started school Monday wondering which teachers might be toting firearms.

"It was kind of awkward knowing that some teachers were carrying guns," said Adam Lira, 17, a senior. "I don't feel like they should be, 'cause we already have locked doors and cameras. But I didn't feel threatened by it."

Several parents said they had no idea that employees of the K-12 school were allowed to carry concealed guns on campus until recent publicity about the school board's policy, approved quietly last fall. They said they were upset that the rural community near the Oklahoma border had not been able to give input.

While some parents said they felt their children were safer, others opposed the plan, which appears to be the first of its kind nationwide.

"As far as I'm concerned, teachers were trained to educate my children — not carry a gun. Even police officers need years of training in hostage situations," said Traci McKay, whose three children are among the 110 students in the red-brick Harrold school. "I don't want my child looking over her shoulder wondering who's carrying a gun."

But Harrold Superintendent David Thweatt said the board approved the policy in an October open meeting that had been publicized. He said the decision was made after nearly two years of researching the best school security options at the school, which is just off a busy highway and 30 minutes away from the sheriff's office.

"When you outlaw guns in a certain area, the only people who follow that are law-abiding citizens, and everybody else ignores it," Thweatt said.

The superintendent said some of the school's 50 employees are carrying weapons, but he wouldn't say how many. When pressed further, he first said that revealing that number might jeopardize school security. He then added that he considered it to be personnel information and not a matter of public record.

Each employee who wants to carry a weapon first must be approved by the board based on his or her personality and reaction to a crisis, Thweatt said. In addition to training required for a state concealed weapons license, they also must be trained to handle crisis intervention and hostage situations.

State education officials said they did not know of any other Texas schools allowing teachers to carry guns. National security experts and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence said they did not know of other U.S. schools with such a policy.

School districts in some states, including Florida and Arizona, have closed loopholes that allowed guns on K-12 campuses. Utah allows concealed weapons at public universities but not at primary or secondary schools.

Thweatt said the board took extra precautions, such as requiring employees to use bullets that will minimize the risk of ricochet, similar to those used by air marshals on planes.

"I can lead them from a fire, tornado and toxic spill; we have plans in place for that. I cannot lead them from an active shooter," Thweatt said. "There are people who are going to think this is extreme, but it's easy to defend."

Judy Priz, who has a third-grade daughter, said that "everyone I've talked to thinks it's great." She said she trusts the teachers with her child's life.

"Look how long it takes the police or anybody else to get here," she told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for a story in its Monday online edition. "If someone wants to come here and harm someone, at least we would have sort of defense."

Gov. Rick Perry has said he supports the policy because "there's a lot of incidents where that would have saved a number of lives."

The Brady Center has spoken out against the plan, saying it may not comply with Texas law, which bans firearms at schools unless carriers have given written permission. If the school board authorizes an employee to carry a gun, then that person must be a peace officer, according to the center.

"It's unfair of us to ask teachers to take on the additional job of being police officers," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign.

Cheryl Mehl, an attorney for the Harrold school district, said the statute the Brady Center cites applies only to security guards, not teachers and other employees. The district has no security guards.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gb14TxGFjaNfNsI_oNCTYWfrXXfgD92PRQP00

[Flower 0]

Holy crap, makes me glad I live in the middle of the cornfields.

[agirl 0]

:eek:

[Beamish 0]

Notice that the article doesn't mention what's going on in the classrooms that would make the teachers fear for their safety in the first place. My very gentle coworker just found out today her spinal cord is fractured- she's been repeatedly assaulted in the classroom by a kid who has no business being in public school, and is always told by the dumbass VP that she was "asking for it".

[Echosoftom 3]

As much as we may all be so shocked to read this, at the same time it's become increasingly dangerous to be in these schools and classrooms. My cousin teaches in the bay area here and one of the reasons she left was because there were 5 assaults, all on teachers in her school in a two week period. And like you said Denise, I'm hearing more and more that these school authorities are afraid to do anything. Now that's really frightening. I'm not on the frontline of some of these schools, so I can't really say. I keep thinking of that asshole that walked into the class of that amish school and killed all those girls and the many other tragic incidents that have taken place in schools and classrooms. It's a scary world these days.

[Refugee 7]

Damn if you do, damn if you don't.

My concern, what if 10 students jump a teacher who is packing and take that weapon? Then what?

I have no clue what the answer is these days.

:confused:

Edited August 28, 2008 by Refugee

[Pettyjunkie 0]

I can understand why they would be armed, but it also makes me nervous. I don't really know...

[Starfish 0]

Sharon, I was thinking about the little Amish kids when I read this, too. There are no easy answers.

[angelic_22 0]

Guns + schoolchildren = problems.

Im not convinced that the Teachers having the guns instead is going to change that equation. Just seems like you should be able to go to school and not have to worry about fire arms and live ammo and getting your ass shot. Maybe I'm just old fashioned.

[Beamish 0]

^ So true, but the reality is that many educators (myself included) have been permanently injured by students. I'm not interested in packing heat because of it, but like Starfish says, there are no easy answers- actually, there is one easy answer that would definately help: get the known offenders off of the damn campuses and stop bending over for stupid parents who scream "lawsuit !".