Keller school board votes on policy that could allow teachers to carry guns on campus
Keller school trustees voted 4-3 Monday to explore allowing some trained employees including teachers to carry guns on campus.
The vote came after students, parents and teachers urged the district to look at alternative ways other than arming staff to expand security in the wake of the Uvalde school massacre and other mass shootings.
But the trustees decided in the split vote to explore options including adding more school resource officers at elementary campuses and to participate in the state-certified Guardian Program that is in place in several rural districts and the North Texas districts of White Settlement and Weatherford.
Keller is among many districts throughout Texas that are beefing up security and safety following the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, where 19 children and 2 teachers were killed.
The board and the audience were divided in their opinions on whether employees, including teachers, should carry guns on campuses.
Board president Charles Randklev said that the district would set the parameters, and that response time to crises needed to be considered. Randklev said he has children in the district and wants to see a “zero” response time to an active shooter, but he knows that isn’t possible.
He talked about the Guardian Program and how it is designed to provide the extra layer of security until law enforcement arrives, which could take longer than two or three minutes.
“Our schools must be a safe place to learn. We can all agree that KISD is a safe district, but it is not immune to violence,” he said.
Randklev described several incidents where students brought guns to school and people not associated with the district tried to get into buildings.
But trustee Ruthie Keyes said the policy had too many variables. Her “science teacher” background played a part in her decision to vote against the emergency policy.
“I’ve taught many many years, and I guarantee you that if I had a gun in my hand and one of my former students walked in the door and they had a gun, and they were an active shooter, it would be very, very difficult for me to shoot that child. My very first instinct was I had him as a fourth-grader,” she said.
She discussed a survey that was given to teachers and community members. Most of those who responded said they didn’t favor teachers being armed in the classroom.
But Randklev said the results weren’t valid because few responded, and that it didn’t give a picture of how the community as a whole felt about the issue.
Audience members, including several high school students who spoke during the meeting, were just as divided as the board when discussing arming teachers and school employees.
Doug Hines, who has three children and four grandchildren, praised the school board for wanting to increase security measures.
“You’ve set a standard of decency. Uvalde is the best example of why we should have this program,” he said.
But Tory Marshall had a different take.
“As a gun owner myself, I honestly don’t know if adding more security is what we need…,” Marshall said. “You do what you want without listening to the community.”