Since Texas launched its school marshal program in 2013, just 84 school districts out of over 1,200 have armed school staff. Educators say the program’s lack of popularity shows that teachers don’t want to be the ones to defend schools from mass shootings.
Students at a North Texas elementary school are welcomed on the first day of classes in 2020. Educators across the state frequently say requirements for the state’s school marshal program can be arduous on top of the myriad responsibilities they have in and out of the classroom, according to the Texas School Safety Center’s director., our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
But since the bill’s passage into law in 2013, just 84 school districts have opted into the program, a sliver of the more than 1,200 school districts across the state.
But Villalba, who is no longer in the Legislature, blamed the low participation on the state’s decision not to allocate funding for the marshal program to help districts purchase the firearms or provide stipends to marshals. He also said the state did not properly educate districts that the option was available.
A few months later, 26 people were killed in a church in Sutherland Springs. Six months after that, eight students and two teachers were shot and killed in a high school in Santa Fe. By fall 2020, the number of districts had risen slightly to 58, yet the number of individual marshals had jumped 73% from 138 marshals to 239.
The governor’s office did not respond to questions about either the school marshal program’s historic low participation rate or whether changes to it were in the works following the Uvalde shooting. But Texas Senate and House leaders have organized committees at Abbott’s request to consider ways to address firearm safety, school safety, mental health, social media and police training.
In Fayetteville ISD, Superintendent Jeff Harvey said the district added the guardian program instead of the more heavily regulated marshal program because it allowed the district to designate a variety of people outside of school staff to be guardians. He requires monthly target training and a psychological exam.
“We’re independent school districts for a reason. Because we know what’s best for our individual districts and I think it’s imperative we have that ability,” he said.
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