A south Texas school district has joined the growing number of school systems around the country that are adding to security measures by having armed staff on campus.
The Little Cypress-Mauriceville Consolidated Independent School District, which is home to about 3,000 students, recently adopted the Texas Guardian program that allows for trained and vetted teachers and staff to lawfully carry on campus.
School superintendent Stacey Brister says there are about 15 staffers who are taking part in the program, presumably spread out across the district’s high school, junior high, and elementary schools.
“We have a large array of former officers and military personnel,” said District Police Chief Michael Hennigan.
Hennigan says the program has given his department a second set of eyes and hands.
“It puts us at ease because we know until we get there we have the campus covered. So that eases the burden on our hearts,’ Hennigan said.
Britser tells 12News that this is the district’s form of “a good cause exception” after the State of Texas mandated tighter restrictions on school safety.
“The law said you had to have a police officer, at the time we didn’t have that. So we went with the exception which said you have to have armed personnel on a campus. But it was very broad with how you would address that,” said Brister.
Texas has two separate programs that allow for armed school staff; the Guardian program and the School Marshal program. Marshals undergo more training, and have some law enforcement powers, while Guardians are essentially focused on stopping active shooter attacks on a campus.
The Guardian program is more common across the Lone Star State, though there are dozens of districts that have decided to use the Marshal program. Since the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Consolidated Independent School District does have a campus police department, the Marshal program is probably unnecessary, but the Guardian program will ensure that every campus has an armed staffer in place in addition to school resource officers. As we’ve reported before, according to research from the Homeland Security Institute at Purdue University, that’s the most effective way to end an active shooting incident on campus.
Cody Knott, a parent, says he’s all for it.
It’s great that the campus police chief is on board with this as well, frankly.
Most likely, these Guardians will never need to draw their firearms to protect the students under their care. The mere fact that these armed school staffers on campus will hopefully deter a potential shooter from carrying out their plans. But it, God forbid, someone with evil in their heart and murder on their mind decides that one of the schools in the Little Cypress-Mauriceville district is an inviting target, they will be met with an armed response… and I have no doubt that the Guardian will save lives.
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