Texas schools armed 33 staff members through School Marshal program

Governor Greg Abbott leads a roundtable discussion in his offices on guns in the wake of the Santa Fe shootings on May 22, 2018. >>>See Texas' gun law changes over the years. Governor Greg Abbott leads a roundtable discussion in his offices on guns in the wake of the Santa Fe shootings on May 22, 2018. >>>See Texas' gun law changes over the years. Photo: Tom Reel, Staff / San Antonio Express-News Photo: Tom Reel, Staff / San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close Texas schools armed 33 staff members through School Marshal program 1 / 27 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN — Craig Bessent wants a police officer at every school to protect students in Wylie Independent School District, but the assistant superintendent can’t afford to put law enforcement in all of his nine campuses. So he has decided to arm teachers and staff.

“I really could not tell those teachers or those parents or those students that they were going to have to wait three minutes, or five minutes” for help to arrive, Bessent told lawmakers exploring arming more personnel to stop mass shootings at schools. “All kids are my responsibility.”

Bessent wouldn’t say how many staff members are armed in the district but did say that every school building is protected.

Wylie is one of only 15 school districts out of more than 1,000 that have the school marshal program, revealing the enormity of the challenge faced by the governor and lawmakers to use armed employees to help prevent future shootings.

CY-FAIR: Call for clear backpacks as part of security plan draws mixed reaction

The program must be approved by school districts, and the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement provides 80 hours of training and licenses school staff members to possess a weapon on campus. So far, only 33 staff members are approved school marshals.

In the wake of the mass shooting at Santa Fe High School, Gov. Greg Abbott said that this summer, his office would pay for the training to increase the number of school marshals at participating school districts. The governor also instructed lawmakers to review school marshal regulations and training to encourage more districts to adopt the program.

The House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee held a hearing Thursday to evaluate the program, and state senators held a similar hearing earlier this month. Some parents and teachers have objected to adding more guns in schools, but some school officials say they cannot afford to pay for police officers, or their own police departments, to quickly respond with force if there is an active shooter at a school.

Lawmakers are also evaluating the state’s guardian program, another mechanism to arm staff in schools. Individual school boards decide how much training the armed staff will receive, and there is no psychological evaluation required. About 200 school districts have guardians, the Texas Association of School Boards reported, and the state has little to no regulation over them.

David Walker, superintendent of the Christoval school district, told lawmakers that his district has placed strict standards for training guardians. Staff members must have 40 hours of handgun training in addition to having a concealed handgun license.

The district posts signs around its schools warning people that personnel there are armed. Some guardians are armed with AR-15s. But most school districts that have armed staff members do not publicize their presence.

Their identity, the schools and the districts that employ school marshals are not public information. The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement doesn’t even want the public to know the number of licensed marshals. No state agency collects information on who is a school guardian.

THE LEGISLATURE: After Santa Fe, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says school security will be top priority in Texas Senate

Kim Vickers, the commission’s director, said secrecy is necessary to protect the marshals and prevent school shootings. During a recent Senate committee hearing, Vickers declined to confirm the number of school marshals even though the head of the state’s department of public safety told lawmakers that there were 33 marshals currently in Texas schools.

“You put yourself in the mind of the shooter,” Vickers said. “If I know this school has armed people and this school does not, where do you think I am probably going to go?”

The law establishing the program says that “identifying information about a person” is confidential, and the commission has interpreted that to include the number of school marshals, said Gretchen Grigsby, a spokeswoman for the commission.

“If you know how many school districts do have school marshals, then you also know how many don’t have school marshals.”

Lawmakers can request information on the program. A legislator’s office confirmed to the Houston Chronicle that there are currently 33 licensed school marshals in 15 districts. The state has granted more than 50 districts permission to appoint a marshal, and more than 40 districts are waiting to be approved. There are more than 1,000 public school districts and 713,000 people employed in Texas schools.

Parents also have the right to ask if their child’s campus has a school marshal. By law, a school must answer a parent who asks in writing.

“As a parent, I may want to know,” Vickers said in a previous hearing. “I don’t have heartburn with that.”

Alejandra Matos covers politics, immigration and education policy. Follow her on Twitter. Subscribe to the Texas Take politics newsletter.