Texas School District to Arm Teachers For Security
The district is concerned about police response time in the event of an emergency.
The small district in Montague County has two school buildings.
A Texas school district’s board members voted to launch a program to arm staff members March 21.
The Gold-Burg Independent School District’s board voted in favor of the plan 5-1 after reviewing similar policies in the area, according to timesrecordnews.com. The proposal will now be sent to the Texas Association of School Boards for review.
Under the program, school staff members with concealed carry permits would take 24 hours of training by commissioned peace officers, sit in on gun safety lectures that include role playing and participate in live firing work.
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The members of the program would be kept private and the school board has final say on who can participate in the program.
The program’s estimated cost for training ten people would be $12,500 the first year and then decrease annually. Superintendent Roger Ellis stressed that the estimate depends on the number of people in the program, the type of training they receive and the stipend the district would pay.
Gold-Burg becomes the latest school district in the state to adopt a concealed carry policy for staff members. The Harold Independent School District in north Texas was the first in the country to create the policy. Since then, the Montague and Prairie Valley school districts have followed suit.
The Gold-Burg district is approximately ten miles from the Bowie Police Department. Ellis said police response time could vary in the event of an emergency.
The concealed carry program is part of a wider effort to improve school security in the district. Gold-Burg has already added video surveillance systems, a security vestibule and fenced perimeters.
The district’s two schools are the Gold-Burg Junior High/High School (grades 6-12) and Ringgold Elementary School (grades K-5).
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