Houston Chronicle by Andrea Zelinski June 6, 2019
An unlimited number of school district teachers and staff can now go armed on campus to help guard against future school shootings, a change spurred by the 2018 massacre at Santa Fe High School that brought the reality of school violence home to Texas.
In the year since a student gunned down his classmates and two substitute teachers, killing 10 people and injuring 13 others, several Texas school districts have embraced the program that allows school staff to undergo training to become marshals certified to keep handguns on campus.
Roughly half of Santa Fe high school employees have expressed interest in the program, although school officials have not yet decided whether they want more armed staff, said school board president Rusty Norman.
“I’m not sure just how many could meet the qualifications and live up and do the training that we would require,†said Norman. “After the community suffered the tragedy it suffered, people are willing to look at all aspects of safety and that’s just one additional thing that does make people feel safer. There are others that are worried about just introducing guns on school campus.â€
With the signing of a new law on Thursday to allow districts to have as many marshals as they see fit, that’s a debate that’s likely coming to school boards all over the state. There were fewer than 40 certified school marshals in Texas in 2018. That number increased five-fold after the mass shooting in Santa Fe.
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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Texas-lifts-cap-on-school-marshal-program-that-13950669.php
