Keller ISD has the right idea to stop school shootings: Let staff, teachers carry guns
After every school shooting, some people wonder if staff or teachers should have had firearms to protect themselves and their students.
Last week, the Keller ISD school board approved a policy that will allow teachers and staff to carry guns for protection once they’ve undergone 50 hours of training. The idea, dubbed the “guardian” program, has generated controversy.
It’s easy to understand critics’ arguments: Armed police officers were stationed in schools where mass shootings occurred, including this year in Uvalde and in 2018 in Parkland, Florida. None of these armed men stopped the tragedies before many people were killed. If armed cops can’t stop a shooting, what could an armed eighth-grade English teacher do?
Likewise, teachers in Keller ISD, as is the case in many North Texas districts, aren’t allowed to even intervene to stop students fighting — yet now they’ll have the ability to intervene in a school shooting? These are conflicting messages.
One board member at the Dec. 12 meeting, a retired teacher, pointed out that according to a survey done across the district, teachers were generally opposed to carrying firearms, 848-60. The board’s president, Dr. Charles Randklev, responded that the survey represented only a sampling.
Despite these valid criticisms, the guardian program is a good idea. There are many documented cases in which trained officers or civilians used guns to curb violence, whether in a home invasion, an attempt at a school shooting or a mass shooting in a public area, such as a shopping mall.
Elisjsha Dicken, a bystander shopping with his girlfriend at an Indiana mall in July, stopped a shooter wielding an AR-15 at an Indiana mall, with nothing but a Glock — and from 40 yards away, at that. Three people died that day, but who knows how many more victims there would have been had Dicken not been armed?
We often hear about the cases like Uvalde, when police — to their shame — failed, as well we should. But the stories of heroism exist, too; they just don’t make as big of a splash.
As Keller ISD School Board member Micah Young said, “More than likely it’s probably going to be 10 to 15 minutes before police arrive. At what point do we put the opportunity into our favor?” This is exactly the right idea.
This isn’t exactly a foreign concept to Texas schools. Texas launched a school marshal program in 2003 and 84 school districts have teachers or staff who can carry firearms.
It’s more likely that people comfortable with guns who are assertive and feel a sense of duty will be willing to participate in the needed training. Because they’re at their own school, with students they know and love, it’s possible they will rise to the occasion if — God forbid — a shooter attempts to terrorize the campus.
Criticisms that students will take advantage of teachers with firearms and possibly use the gun against the teacher or other students are valid. But this is where training, protocols and practice are necessary. Even one infraction along these lines should be taken seriously.
Studies show that in cities and soft target areas where gun control is at its most strict, gun-related violence reigns. It makes sense. Perpetrators don’t follow laws, so they go where everyone else does. If a school, church, movie theater, or shopping mall is dubbed a gun-free zone, they know most people there will be unprotected. That’s why you see so many mass shootings in places like this and not, say, at law enforcement headquarters.
A guardian program would mean potential perpetrators are unaware of who has a gun or how many people do, and that works against the shooter’s mindset.
It’ll be interesting to see just how many teachers and staff volunteer to carry firearms into their schools. Keller is a large school district. Will this deter future crime? If it does, perhaps more districts should consider such programs.
