Texas teachers armed already?

Did you know that a Texas law allows a teacher to be armed in over 150 School districts across the state?

With all the mass shootings happening around the country, sending my children to a public school scares me more now than years ago. We went from bad days because of everyday school lunch option to the rare bully wreaking havoc on other students.

Lately, it seems a rather sinister thing is happening concurrently with the world today. We have a breakdown in a lot of areas including the mental health department, expressed by the decline of care of the facilities, lack of needed funding and imprisonment vs. a mental health facility. We have many different groups and organizations coming to the spotlight saying school shootings are because of fatherless homes. Some offer the lack of “gun free zones” or the opposite, that we give too much freedom and access to places where some feel need to arm teachers and such.

What could be a good solution to the effect of not having everyday parents worrying each morning that their child may be a part of what the news calls “another situation” and then names the city and school while also highlighting which type of gun was used.

When will enough be enough and we come up with a solution to an ever-growing problem?

“The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional organization, representing more than 3 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators and students preparing to become teachers.

The NEA, who also follows the politics that will affect our public school education, put out a news release recently saying:

“The following can be attributed to NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia:

“Bringing more guns into our schools does nothing to protect our students and educators from gun violence. Our students need more books, art and music programs, nurses and school counselors; they do not need more guns in their classrooms. Parents and educators overwhelmingly reject the idea of arming school staff. Educators need to be focused on teaching our students. We need solutions that will keep guns out of the hands of those who want to use them to massacre innocent children and educators. Arming teachers does nothing to prevent that.

        We owe it to the students and school personnel, who’ve lost their lives at schools and on campuses across the country, to work together so that we can thoughtfully and carefully develop common sense solutions that really will save lives.”

“The U.S. Department of Education is continuing its work with the U.S. Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Homeland Security to help ensure that schools remain among the safest places in our communities and to provide students the supports they need to succeed.”

In 2015, The President proposed a plan called Now is the Time, to, “help protect schools and communities by reducing gun violence and providing resources to schools.” The budget would include the following points:

-School Climate Transformation Grants ($50 million): These grants will help schools train their teachers and staff to implement evidence-based behavioral intervention strategies that improve school climate and reduce bullying.

-Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students State and Local Grants ($45 million): These grants will help states, districts, and schools to meet the specific needs of their communities by supporting programs that improve school climate and student's mental and physical health.

-Project Prevent Grants ($25 million): These grants will enable school districts with high levels of violence to provide supports and services to address trauma or anxiety while promoting conflict resolution and other school-based strategies to prevent future violence.

-Project SERV (School Emergency Response to Violence) ($5 million): These grants help restore the learning environment after a natural disaster or violent incident at or near a school, college, or university.

When looking further for current information, that website has been taken down as of the writing of this piece.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/wh_now_is_the_time_full.pdf

President Trump has encouraged teachers being trained and armed to protect our children.

“Trump, Vice President Pence and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos asked for feedback on how to prevent future school shootings and increase safety at the nation's schools. Suggestions were varied, ranging from ways to provide more and better security at schools, taking action about the role that mental health plays in school shootings, raising the age to purchase rifles and strengthening background checks. Over the course of the session, the president voiced support for all of these proposals in some form, including raising the minimum age to purchase long guns. (Later Wednesday the National Rifle Association issued a statement saying it opposed raising the age to purchase rifles or shotguns.)
But its one particular approach that Trump supported — arming teachers and other adults working at schools with concealed-carry weapons — that is likely to be one of the most controversial responses to yet another school shooting in the U.S.”

The Texas State Teachers Association’s mission statement reads, “The Texas State Teachers Association will unite, organize and empower public education advocates to shape public education in Texas thus providing a quality public school for every child.”

According to an article published, “Clay Robison, public affairs specialist for the Texas State Teachers Association, which represents thousands of Texas school teachers, says despite what activists may believe, firepower is not the answer to school violence.

You do not cure gun violence in the classroom by putting more guns into schools,” he says. “You sell more guns that way, but you don’t address the problem of gun violence.

For several years, the NRA and other groups have promoted the idea of having teachers and other staff carries firearms to protect students in case of an attack. But Robison says TSTA, and its parent group the National Education Association, believe lawmakers should instead focus on ways to end the violence, such as passing common-sense gun laws and improving mental-health care.”

An East Texas ISD has already helped pave the way to a program that has been implemented for some time.

“Carthage ISD implemented its Guardian program in 2014. Superintendent Dr. Glenn Hambrick says the Sandy Hook school shooting is what prompted the school district to take action.

“Even if you have an officer, which is also nice to have — they know who the officer is, but they don’t know who the guardians are. I think that’s what makes it the deterrent, is they really don’t know who it is that will confront them,” Hambrick said of a potential shooter.

All guardians go through extensive training at a facility that trains law enforcement officers across the country. “The main thing is that they would be able to confront an armed intruder and protect the kids.”

-After the Florida shooting, President Donald Trump was heard saying he is,

“considering backing proposals to promote concealed carrying of weapons by trained school employees to respond to campus shootings.” Will the president make a difference by siding on the promotion of arming teachers to protect our students?

One Cedar Creek Lake resident added a link to a great article about the programs offered here in Texas that any school district could take part in.

http://www.caller.com/story/news/education/2018/02/22/texas-172-school-districts-allow-teachers-staff-armed/364677002/

Texas school districts can take part in a program offered through legislation, The Guardian Program (name chosen per district) but under a School Marshall Program.

The School Marshall Program states,

-The sole purpose of a School Marshal is to prevent the act of murder or serious bodily injury on school premises, and act only as defined by the written regulations adopted by the School Board/Governing Body.

There are also many requirements to be established as a School Marshal, including being an employee of the district in which applying, applicant must take a psychological exam as well as attend and complete a Texas Commission on Law Enforcement(TCOLE) approved course that takes 80 hours to complete.

With many large organizations calling for less guns in our schools and others calling for more, each individual has the right to express an opinion to their local school board to initiate the start of arming our local schools or if in favor against teachers being trained and armed.

Personally having one student in a local ISD in the Cedar Creek Lake Area, this is something that makes me want to learn more about. Also, to know if this is something that would protect our rural school kiddos from future harm.

http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/member-page/?district=114
http://www.publicnewsservice.org/2018-02-27/education/texas-teachers-group-balks-at-carrying-guns-in-school/a61616-1
http://www.nea.org/home/54056.htm
http://www.nea.org/home/72835.htm
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/21/587775635/trump-backs-arming-teachers-during-emotional-white-house-listening-session
http://www.tsta.org/about-us
http://www.epbusinessjournal.com/2018/02/texas-teachers-group-balks-carrying-guns-school/
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2018/02/22/trump-wants-arm-teachers-texas-already-allows-sorthttp://kxan.com/2018/02/27/teachers-are-already-armed-at-one-east-texas-school-district/