Texas school district sign: Armed faculty 'may use whatever force necessary' to protect students

@BearingArmsCom: "BACK TO SCHOOL: Gun Zone Signs in Texas That Will Actually Reach Criminals" @BearingArmsCom: "BACK TO SCHOOL: Gun Zone Signs in Texas That Will Actually Reach Criminals" Photo: Courtesy/Twitter Photo: Courtesy/Twitter Image 1 of / 63 Caption Close Texas school district sign: Armed faculty 'may use whatever force necessary' to protect students 1 / 63 Back to Gallery

On the back to school shopping list for teachers and faculty in a school district 30 miles east of Amarillo is a concealed handgun license.

A new sign at the two campuses in Claude, a rural town with a population 1,200, call attention to the fact that some of the school district's staff is “armed and may use whatever force necessary” to protect its students, according to media reports.

MyHighPlains.com reported Sunday the school district allowed its employees to start carrying in November 2015 after more than a year of creating a plan to implement campus carry. Now, almost a year later, signs have gone up at the district’s elementary and junior/senior high school.

The district has 68 employees, 40 of which are teachers, according to its site. It is unclear how many employees at the district carry a weapon daily. The district, according to its website, had 354 students enrolled last year at its two schools— an elementary campus and a junior/senior high school.

BACK TO SCHOOL: Gun Zone Signs in Texas That Will Actually Reach Criminals https://t.co/z0kmwgWKkb #2A #campuscarry pic.twitter.com/L4eMQe76zd — Bearing Arms (@BearingArmsCom) August 4, 2016

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Students still need to be protected despite the absence of a traditional city police department, Superintendent Jeff Byrd told News Channel 10, adding the sign is not meant to be threatening but proactive.

“If there were a perpetrator that entered our building we would be able to hold off the building until the professionals got here,” he said.

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Byrd also said he feels anyone working member of the school district would give their life to save a child.

“Our job is to make sure the kids are safe, that they are comfortable and secure,” he told the news station.

In addition to having a concealed handgun license, employees who carry will have to shoot monthly in training, Byrd told MyHighPlains.com.

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“We have to shoot so many rounds a month, so there is training involved monthly and annually we go to a two to three-day thorough training where we are working on different scenarios,” he said.

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5