Legislature eyes gun training for teachers Dewhurst among those pushing to expand law.

AUSTIN — State law allows independent school districts to authorize non-police employees to carry firearms on the job — although only one of 1,032 does. Some lawmakers now want to expand current law to include specialized training standards and funding methods for any districts that decide to go that route.

A least two state representatives and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst have said they will push legislation to arm and train school officials if the district chooses but are sorting out specifics, such as who should foot the bill. Teacher groups and experts have said introducing weapons into a classroom setting could add danger and liability risks for schools.

Freshman Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, announced plans to file his so-called “school marshal bill” four days after the massacre of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut last December.

His proposal attempts to mirror the federal air marshal program in the public school system, he said, and would be an “expansion of law enforcement in the classroom.”

“We are trying to train teachers, administrators or others to serve as a certified law enforcement officer in the case of an emergency situation,” Villalba said. “The training would be on par with emergency active shooter training in a police academy.”

It would apply only to school districts that “opt in,” he said, and would require “volunteer school marshals to take on the cost for the training, weapons and ammunition.”

Dewhurst, on the other hand, said last week he supports state-funded, specialized firearms training for teachers and other officials chosen by a school district.

Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, who has promised to file similar legislation, conducted a concealed handgun license training course at her house Dec. 28, according to her Facebook page. Repeated attempts to reach her for comment were unsuccessful.

Villalba, whose daughter attends a Dallas Independent School District school, said his proposal has received “overwhelming support” from lawmakers but hasn't yet been filed because he is ironing out risk issues “to make sure that we maneuver deftly through the legal minefield of liabilities.”

That “minefield” is vast and dangerous, and can include a school district getting blamed for the negligent use of a firearm, said Geary Reamey, a law professor at Trinity University in San Antonio.

An accessible, holstered weapon could be dangerous in a classroom of “curious and active children,” he said, and locking it away could make it inaccessible when needed.

And there are other questions, he added: “If some teachers are allowed to carry a firearm but others don't, is the school liable if a shooter harms students in the class of an unarmed teacher?”

Harrold ISD, the lone school district in Texas that authorizes officials to carry concealed weapons on school grounds, has one K-12 school for 100 students just west of Wichita Falls. David Thweatt, its superintendent, said movies and “anti-gun mainstream media” can play up the risks of firearms.

“When it comes to risks, superintendents are more concerned every time they stick kids in a school bus, (in) vehicles or going out and playing football,” Thweatt said.

Shanna Scarborough, a high school teacher at nearby Wichita Falls ISD, said she applied for a concealed handgun license for her “own personal knowledge and protection” and completed the training a week after the Sandy Hook shootings.

“I would have to think about carrying in the building, and I would need a safe and secure way to do so,” Scarborough, 23, said. “If parents can conceal a gun in the parking lot, educators should be able to as well.”

Villalba said his bill is designed to help schools that don't currently have armed security guards, though any district could make use of it.

Roughly a third of schools in Bexar County have a certified armed security officer, mostly in high schools and some middle schools, said Tom Cummins, president of the Bexar County Federation of Teachers. An armed officer or teacher doesn't guarantee a shooter is stopped, he said, pointing to the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado in 1999, where an armed guard exchanged fire with two student shooters but missed. According to news reports, the deputy opened fire four minutes after the students began the rampage, which lasted about 50 minutes.

“The risk assumed by arming teachers may be seen by school districts and taxpayers as outweighing the benefit to be derived in the unlikely event an attacker enters a school,” Reamey said.

“I think Columbine is the exception, not the rule,” Villalba said. “Statistics overwhelmingly show when shooters are confronted by law enforcement, they cease their operation.”

kparker@express-news.net