School Safety Laws and New School Marshals

School safety laws in spotlight on Page A1 of Thursday, September 05, 2013 issue of Austin American Statesman

Category: School safety

Level: State

This article is concerning an “enacted” policy that has been passed to help with a problem/issue that individuals/families face.

This is important to individuals/families:
The new policy that will allow faculty and staff who already have a concealed handgun licenses to become “school marshals” will give students and their families peace of mind when they are attending school. This policy will combat the frequency of attacks we are seeing on schools and help to make those schools more prepared in the face of those attacks thus improving their level of safety.

My views on the issue/policy:

I am on board with this policy; I think it is a step in the right direction towards keeping our schools and students safe. Faculty and staff who volunteer for these positions as school marshal are undoubtedly putting themselves in a high risk position. They will be held responsible for the safety of the children under their watch if an incident is to occur. Some may wonder if teachers can handle that type of responsibility, but that should be a decision for each individual teacher. Those who don’t feel comfortable with the position, or don’t feel that they could react in the right way to keep children safe, they would not sign up for the job. There has been speculation that allowing teachers to carry guns will bring in the potential for accidental and intentional harm to students by teachers. While I can see the possibility as well, there are measures put in place to reduce the chances of those incidents, for example, the 80 hour training required of those teachers, as well as mental health exams. There is always risk in situations like this but I believe it is a necessary risk for us to take to improve the safety of our schools.

There is also current law in Texas that says schools without marshals may choose to allow faculty who have concealed handgun licenses to carry a weapon on the campus as another means to keep the children safe. This law was put in place mainly for schools in rural areas that have longer police response times due to distance. The only real difference here is, these faculty members did not go through the state certified training. That is not to say that these teachers are not trained, they are just not as thoroughly trained.

Based on all of this, I believe all schools should send faculty and staff through the marshal training. Why pass up on an opportunity to make your school safer by any means possible? Ultimately though, each school district has the right to decide on their own. But in this day in age, anything can happen.