Hedley ISD approves armed employees

Certain school personnel will be allowed to carry firearms at Hedley ISD following a vote of the school board last week.

Superintendent Terry Stevens said the school’s decision came after several months of deliberations and research.

“We’re not being cowboys or trying to be Rambo, we just want to protect these kids as best we can,” Stevens said.

School officials said more than 170 Texas schools now arm employees to protect students in the wake shootings across the country, but Stevens said Hedley isn’t making a knee-jerk decision.

“This came up three months ago during a board discussion of security, deadbolt locks, and other issues,” Stevens said. “One of the board members asked if we had considered concealed carry. Everyone agreed they wanted to consider it.”

Stevens then called other area schools, started discussions with the school’s attorneys at the Underwood Law Firm, and met with Donley County Chief Deputy Randy Bond.

“This isn’t anything new,” Stevens said. “The Legislature has made this possible. Doing nothing is not going to be good for this school, and the board knows that. These shootings happen in just a few minutes. We’re sitting here on US 287, twenty miles from the county seat, and law enforcement isn’t always necessarily nearby.”

Not all district employees will be allowed to carry weapons, Stevens said. Employees with licenses to carry and who work in critical locations will be identified by the administration and presented to the board for approval. Those approved employees will be tested for psychological fitness and will then have to receive training in the protection of students, interaction with first responders, tactics for dealing with an intruder, and other skills.

Stevens said it will be the fall semester before armed personnel are in place; and while signs will warn potential intruders that they will be met with armed force, the number and identity of those employees will remain secret.

“The board and I will be the only ones who know who is armed,” Stevens said. “We’re going to have a sufficient number to protect our school.”

Clarendon School Superintendent Mike Norrell says CISD already has a lot of security measures in place but that security is going to be an issue on the board’s March agenda.

“People have asked about it, and it seems like this issue [arming school personnel] comes up every time there is a shooting,” Norrell said. “I don’t know what the answer is.”

Norrell said the discussion in March will cover all of CISD’s security measures.

For its part, Hedley ISD is trying to make everyone aware of all the facts about the new program. The school did not solicit input from the public or parents before last Monday’s vote. However, the district says it does plan to hold a public forum with parents at some point, and it has released a two-page letter explaining the district’s action.

“Each student is precious to us at Hedley ISD,” Stevens said in the letter. “Anything we can do to ensure that every student goes home safely, we are prepared to do. We hope we never have to call upon our board-approved employees to unholster their weapons. But if such a terrible circumstance were to arise, the Hedley ISD Board has created a program that puts the right employees with the right training between an active shooter and our children. And I’m proud to be a part of it.”

For more information, read Hedley ISD’s entire statement on its new policy below.

TEXT OF PRESS RELEASE:

Hedley ISD Board of Trustees Adds Additional Layer of Security  in Case of an Active Shooter

Heartbreaking tragedies involving active shooters at schools have made the names of Columbine High School and Sandy Hook Elementary School infamous. What those tragedies have taught many school administrators responsible for the safety of children is that responding to an active shooter within the first few minutes is critical to preventing needless bloodshed.

The Hedley ISD Board of Trustees has decided to join many other school districts from across Texas in adding an additional layer of security for student safety should the unlikely but tragic scenario of an active shooter present itself at one of its schools. As of February 19, 2018, Hedley ISD is allowing certain Board-approved employees who meet certain criteria and possess a license to carry a firearm to carry their firearm on school grounds. The goal of this policy is to provide, as quickly as possible, an armed response to an active shooter at a school so that needless bloodshed may be prevented.

Not all District employees who possess a license to carry a handgun will be allowed to do so on school grounds. Instead, employees possessing the necessary skill set to meet the District’s overall security needs and who are assigned at critical District locations will be identified and vetted by the administration. Then, those employees will be presented to the Hedley School Board for approval. If the individual employee is approved by the School Board, the employee is required to meet the following additional measures before he or she may possess a firearm on school grounds:

1. The employee must be properly licensed under state law to carry a handgun;
2. The employee must take a psychological examination to affirmatively determine that he or she is psychologically fit to engage an active shooter in an emergency situation; and
3. The employee must receive training in the following areas:
• Protection of Students;
• Interaction with first responders;
• Tactics for denying an intruder entry into a classroom or school facility; and
• Methods for increasing an authorized employee’s accuracy with a handgun while under duress; and
4. The employee must certify to the District that he or she has practiced loading, unloading, and shooting the employee’s primary carry handgun with a minimum of 300 rounds of ammunition annually.

Once the Board-approved employee has presented the appropriate documentation to the superintendent of schools that he or she has completed the psychological, tactical, and practical training, the employee will be certified by the Superintendent to carry a handgun on school grounds.

“The profound responsibility we feel as an administration for the lives and safety of the students entrusted to our care is the primary driver of our going down this road,” stated Terry Stevens, Superintendent of Schools for Hedley ISD. “Although Hedley ISD is blessed with outstanding local, county, and state law enforcement personnel, in the best case scenario, it will take several minutes for any law enforcement officer to respond to a 911 call at one of our campuses in the case of an active shooter. Too much is at stake during those first few minutes to not take some affirmative step to protect our children during that critical time period. This program is that step,” says Mr. Stevens.

As Hedley ISD begins its program, it is taking advantage of several new laws that the Texas legislature has recently passed to get its Board-approved employees tested and trained. Specifically, in 2013, the legislature passed SB 1857, which created an additional certification for certified handgun instructors to teach individuals in the exact tactics required by the Hedley ISD plan. Also in 2013, the legislature passed HB 1009, which is commonly referred to as the “School Marshall Bill”. In that new law, the legislature tasked the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education (“TCLEOSE”) with developing a psychological test that would “determine whether [a person] is psychologically fit to carry out the duties of a school marshal in an emergency shooting or situation involving an active shooter.”

Mr. Stevens stated, “We are fortunate that, because of SB 1857 and HB 1009 and other law enforcement initiatives, we can access high-quality training in tactical school safety through several resources, including state licensed and certified instructors, and we can access psychological testing that is readily available to ensure that we are putting a tactically proficient and psychologically suitable person in the position of protecting our children.”

The names of the persons who have been certified by the District to carry their handguns and the number and locations of those persons is considered confidential by law under Texas Government Code Chapter 552 and won’t be released by the District in order to protect the safety of those employees and to give them the best opportunity to protect the children of Hedley ISD.

“Each student is precious to us at Hedley ISD. Anything we can do to ensure that every student goes home safely, we are prepared to do. We hope we never have to call upon our Board-approved employees to unholster their weapons, but if such a terrible circumstance were to arise, the Hedley ISD Board has created a program that puts the right employees with the right training between an active shooter and our children. And, I’m proud to be part of it,” Stevens said.