‘Many, many’ Texas teachers seek to carry guns in schools, Tarrant County sheriff says

[Paladin]

‘Many, many’ Texas teachers seek to carry guns in schools, Tarrant County sheriff says

Many Texas teachers are becoming qualified to carry firearms in schools in the wake of the Uvalde mass shooting, according to Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn

...Waybourn said schools must be “hardened” to protect kids from shooters, mirroring Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s call for action to better secure schools from potential shooters. To protect schools, Waybourn said, schools need “a good guy with a gun ready to go,” whether that person is a police officer or a “well-trained vetted staff member in that school.”

Across the state, 62 school districts were qualified through the {School Marshal} program for a total of 256 school marshals as of May
...Texas has more than 1,200 school districts, including charter schools.

Only 5.1% of school districts have the program with only an average of 4 school marshals per qualified district... I'd say the 80 hour Marshal program isn't enough. 80 hours training is a substantial barrier to entry. The School Safety Certification Program is only 16 hours. No word on how many of those there are.

[Rafe]

Response from a county in North Carolina:

AR-15s put in all Madison County schools to enhance security in case of active shooter
https://www.citizen-times.com/story/new ... 234037002/

Madison County Schools and Madison County Sheriff's Office are collaborating to enhance security in the schools for the upcoming school year after the Uvalde, Texas, tragedy revealed systemic failures and poor decision-making, with responding police disregarding active-shooter trainings, according to a report from the Texas state house.

"Those officers were in that building for so long, and that suspect was able to infiltrate that building and injure and kill so many kids," Sheriff Buddy Harwood said. "I just want to make sure my deputies are prepared in the event that happens...."

"We were able to put an AR-15 rifle and safe in all of our schools in the county," Harwood said. "We've also got breaching tools to go into those safes. We've got extra magazines with ammo in those safes. The reason we put the breaching tools in the safes is that in the event we have someone barricaded in a door, we won't have to wait on the fire department to get there. We'll have those tools to be able to breach that door if needed. I do not want to have to run back out to the car to grab an AR, because that's time lost. Hopefully we'll never need it, but I want my guys to be as prepared as prepared can be."

[Boxerrider]

If you drive by a campus with armed personnel (teachers/staff/administrators), then you'll probably see a sign stating so. Based on my observations in rural central Texas - almost all districts do.
The Texas School Safety, "Guardian" program allows districts greater selection and training freedom (you can include cost in this too), and I believe many have chosen that over the "Marshal" program.

[K.Mooneyham]

Most bad guys want to hit a soft target, they do not want to face the possibility of a rapid armed response. The military spends a lot of time, effort, and money to train combat troops to continue to engage despite the potential of injury or death. I haven't noticed that any of these vile criminals who have attacked schools have had any training of that nature.

[ELB]

Across the state, 62 school districts were qualified through the {School Marshal} program for a total of 256 school marshals as of May
...Texas has more than 1,200 school districts, including charter schools.

Only 5.1% of school districts have the program with only an average of 4 school marshals per qualified district... I'd say the 80 hour Marshal program isn't enough. 80 hours training is a substantial barrier to entry. The School Safety Certification Program is only 16 hours. No word on how many of those there are.

Focusing on the Marshal program grossly understates the actual situation. School districts by far prefer the Guardian program, which comes with much less state control/interference. There are more than 300 independent school districts in Texas that use the Guardian program and have armed teachers/staff. One of the advantages of the Guardian program is there are no limits on the number of armed staff other than what the school board approves.