HARROLD (Texas) aEUR” Leaders of Harrold Independent Schools District hope that violence will not come to their small town near the Texas/Oklahoma border. Half the district’s 27 employees are aEUR” women and men; teachers, coaches, and janitors aEUR” are trained to shoot to kill intruders to protect their students.
Cody Patton is the superintendent of Harrold Schools. He says, “Our situation has changed a lot.” “I’m familiar with some of your larger schools, and I know that a lot people are against it. They’re not in our position. We are a rural school located in the middle of nowhere.”
Conservative Texas lawmakers are calling for more weapons to be given to teachers in the wake of the Uvalde school massacre, which resulted in the deaths of 19 students and 2 teachers. Teachers are strongly opposed to it. However, the strategy is being adopted by more isolated schools districts like Harrold where the nearest officer lives miles away.
Patton is an intruder’s nightmare. He stands 6’6 and weighs 330 pounds. He was defensive tackle for Texas Tech Red Raiders. Just up the road is the family ranch and farm. He said he was mixing wheat up until midnight just before the reporter arrived. He has been a coach in the region for many years and was appointed as the superintendent last summer.
Patton said that he has been receiving lots of calls since the Uvalde tragedy about Harrold’s public reputation as one Texas’ most armed schools.
He says, “I have two girls in this school.” “But, basically every child who walks through that door is mine. I’m responsible to ensure their safety and make sure that they get home to their parents at the end. We want our employees to be able to do whatever is necessary to protect our children.
They fear a gunman attempting to hijack busy U.S. 279. This century-old schoolhouse is one of the most prominent buildings in town. If a freight train from Burlington Northern blocks the roads to town, the nearest deputy sheriff is only 20 minutes away.
Harrold, Texas has very little. The town is surrounded by wheat, cattle, wind farms and consists of a water tower and a volunteer fire company, about 20 houses, a large “Texans for Trump” sign, and the school. It is home to 100-125 students in grades K-12.
Patton states, “We are so small that we can’t afford to pay security officers on campus to handle everything.”
Harrold prohibits teachers from carrying concealed guns because students could get them. The loaded weapon must be kept close to the teacher and only accessible by a code.
Patton compares the training he and his “team” receive to a parent learning to swim.
He says, “Arming our teachers basically means going ahead and signing for swimming lessons to give that child the best chance of saving him or her.” “We don’t want to be the ones who have to watch that child drown.
It is highly controversial to arm educators.
The National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers and National Parent Teacher Association strongly oppose the idea.
A recent survey conducted by the Texas American Federation of Teachers found that 77 percent of respondents did not want a gun.
Zeph Capo, Texas AFT President, stated that arming teachers is dangerous and counterproductive. “Teachers cannot be expected to become highly-trained law enforcement officers and use guns when it is necessary without putting students at risk.”
Texas’s school board and employees make the decision about whether to allow students to carry arms on school campuses.
But, in the abstract, Michelle Cardenas would not be able to teach if her superintendent instructed her to carry a concealed handgun in school. She says, “I’d leave.” “I don’t want to be trained in shooting an intruder who comes into the school.”
She is employed at Del Valle Independent Schools District, which is located on the southeast edge of Austin.
Cardenas states, “I went to school because I wanted to teach children.” My job is not to have a gun.”
Two programs allow Texas teachers to be armed: the Guardian Plan or the School Marshal.
The Guardian plan is not strictly regulated. Local school boards allow employees to receive training and carry guns on campus, which is normally a gun-free zone. Harrold Schools actually initiated the Guardian Plan in 2007 after a mass shooting at a Pennsylvania Amish schoolhouse. Five girls were killed by a gunman.
The Texas School Safety Center reports that 280 of 1,022 Texas school districts reported using some form of the Guardian Plan as of 2020.
The School Marshal Program is more demanding. The School Marshal Program requires a psychological examination, gun proficiency to fire 700 rounds, and 80 hours training in active shooter response and use of force. Every two years, a 16-hour renewal course will be required.
Only 71 of the more than 1,200 school districts in Texas have school marshals. According to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement which oversees this program, nine more schools have signed up after the Uvalde shooting. Trained school marshals can be considered peace officers with the ability to arrest, but not on school property. For comparison, regular licensed police officers need 720 hours of training.
Governor. Greg Abbott, a Republican running for reelection with Donald Trump’s support aEUR”, has refused to allow more gun restrictions. Instead, he encouraged school districts to train more school marshals and hire more campus cops. Michelle Cardenas from the Texas State Teachers Association is the regional president and offers grants for training marshals.
“So, we can find money for teachers but not money to fund curriculum?” She asks. “We don’t have the money to buy supplies or materials that will pay our hourly workers a living wage.” Yet, we are going to give them guns?
The Federal Commission on School Safety’s 2018 report highlighted several cases where school-based officers prevented gun deaths. A school-based officer killed and injured a man trying to steal another officer’s firearm and force his way into an elementary school in Alabama with 34 students. The Rand Corporation has released a 2020 study that shows the evidence against arming teachers is not conclusive.
This is not for everyone. Russ Ramsey, Harrold High School’s coach and agricultural instructor, says that this takes a special kind of teacher.
He claims that a lifelong passion for hunting and an intimate knowledge of firearms have prepared him to become a school marshal.
Ramsey states that during our training, they had a cardboard cut-out depicting a bad guy holding a child in a headlock and pointing a gun at their head. “I’ve seen teachers fall right there. They couldn’t pull the trigger on the bad man because they weren’t mentally or physically ready.
Even trained responders aren’t always able to tell if they will risk their lives in order to save others. In Uvalde 19 officers remained in the school’s hallway for over an hour, rather than confronting the shooter immediately.
Ramsey states, “I would like for it to be that I would get this problem solved as quickly as possible.” Ramsey says, “But until it happens, there’s no way to say whether it’s possible or not.”
Many of the Harold school students are transfer students from other districts. According to Superintendent Patton, the parents have explained why. They feel more secure with their children here than in large schools where staff are locked up.
