Texas House advances bill that would require armed personnel on school campuses

[Morrison71]

Texas House advances bill that would require armed personnel on school campuses

The legislation is a GOP priority following the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde. But some Texas Democrats oppose the measure, arguing more guns in schools isn’t a logical solution.

www.keranews.org

House Bill 3 by state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, would allow a district's board of trustees to determine the actual number of armed officers for each school, but at least one would need to be present during school hours. The proposal would also task the Texas Education Agency with ensuring compliance with the provisions in the legislation, including performing onsite audits that could be conducted at random.

Burrows, who chaired the special committee that investigated the 2022 Uvalde shooting where 19 students and two teachers were killed, explained the legislation should be considered separately from the debate over law enforcement's botched reaction to the shooting.

Were HB 3 to become law, a district could be found in noncompliance if it didn't submit to the monitoring or didn't address concerns raised by the TEA in "a reasonable time" according to the bill's analysis. A student who attends a school in a non-compliant district could receive a grant to attend school elsewhere, and any superintendent or other administrator fired because of district noncompliance wouldn't be eligible for severance pay.
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The bill has some bipartisan support. State Reps. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, and Tracy King, D-Batesville, signed on as joint authors.

The legislation was included on the list of Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan's priority bills released earlier this session. But some Democrats opposed the measure on the grounds that having more guns in schools would be counterproductive to the purported goals of the legislation.
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According to the language of the bill, an armed officer would be required to be "a school district peace officer, school resource officer, a commissioned peace officer employed as security personnel, a school marshal, or a district employee." But the officer could also be someone who "had completed school safety training provided by a qualified handgun instructor certified in school safety; and carried a handgun on the employee's person while on school premises."
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"We don't want those guns in our classrooms. Teachers themselves do not want to be armed, we know that," she said, citing a poll by the Texas American Federation of Teachers poll that found 77% of those asked opposed arming teachers. "We should be taking into consideration how our teachers, parents and students feel about staff being armed before mandating this across the state."

Ramos tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to exclude teachers, but Burrows opposed the modification, saying it creates a "false narrative" that the legislation forces teachers to be armed.
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Later in Monday's debate, state Rep. Vicki Goodwin, D-Austin, offered an amendment that would have required trigger locks on weapons brought onto campuses under Burrows' legislation. She cited several examples of why she felt the added safety precaution is needed, including a 2019 incident in Bowie County where a Pleasant Grove ISD employee's loaded gunwas left on a school bus and found by a student.

Burrows said that decision could be left up to individual school districts and opposed the amendment, which also failed.

"I have absolutely no problem with trigger locks however I don't know their availability," he said, calling the amendment "absolutely unnecessary."

The legislation ultimately passed 122-19 and faces one more procedural vote before it is eligible for consideration by the Texas Senate.

 

[SIXERS24]

Good at least they wont be soft targets that liberal trannys can attack

 

[RNHawk]

Don’t know why anyone would disapprove of this

 

[sober_teacher]

Don’t know why anyone would disapprove of this

I mean sure, cuz armed security officers worked so well at Uvalde, Parkland, etc.

 

[RNHawk]

I mean sure, cuz armed security officers worked so well at Uvalde, Parkland, etc.

So don’t have them at all then?

 

[sober_teacher]

So don’t have them at all then?

To make it mandatory? Disagree completely. If a school district has the resources to do so, by all means. I’m just dubious that armed guards in a school actually improves school safety. One could argue the opposite, because those same officers get involved in school discipline, leading to kids getting arrested and such.

Why is it the only solution to school shootings is MORE guns in a school setting? Can we actually point to a time that the officer stopped a shooting before it got started?

 

[RNHawk]

To make it mandatory? Disagree completely. If a school district has the resources to do so, by all means. I’m just dubious that armed guards in a school actually improves school safety. One could argue the opposite, because those same officers get involved in school discipline, leading to kids getting arrested and such.

Why is it the only solution to school shootings is MORE guns in a school setting? Can we actually point to a time that the officer stopped a shooting before it got started?

Well if you can point to an ongoing problem of armed officers/personal causing problems in school I would be more than willing to read about it

 

[RNHawk]

To make it mandatory? Disagree completely. If a school district has the resources to do so, by all means. I’m just dubious that armed guards in a school actually improves school safety. One could argue the opposite, because those same officers get involved in school discipline, leading to kids getting arrested and such.

Why is it the only solution to school shootings is MORE guns in a school setting? Can we actually point to a time that the officer stopped a shooting before it got started?

Houston cop lauded for stopping potential mass shooting near kid’s dance competition

Kendrick Simpo said he was working a second job at The Galleria mall in Houston’s Uptown District.

nypost.com

 

[Morrison71]

Well if you can point to an ongoing problem of armed officers/personal causing problems in school I would be more than willing to read about it

Police Are Being Removed From Schools for Sexual Assault - Dame Magazine

In 2014, Dothan, Alabama police officer Lanice Bonds pleaded guilty to having sex with a 16-year-old student from Dothan High School, where he worked as a school resource officer (SRO) for over six years. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Three years later, at the same school, another...

www.damemagazine.com

In 2014, Dothan, Alabama police officer Lanice Bonds pleaded guilty to having sex with a 16-year-old student from Dothan High School, where he worked as a school resource officer (SRO) for over six years. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Three years later, at the same school, another resource officer, Adrian Folmar, was arrested for engaging in a sex act with a 17-year-old student. As investigations progressed, another victim was found, and this time, she was 14 years old.

Bonds and Folmar appear to be part of a wider pattern of school resource officers being removed from their positions due to sexual misconduct. In late 2021, an anonymous source reached out to DAME with data collected from local news reports. Within that data alone, which DAME fact-checked, at least 440 school children have been sexually abused by school police at their school in the last 20 years. After consulting experts in the field and assessing the accuracy of this small sample size, DAME concludes that incidents of police sexual misconduct in schools are likely underreported.
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This data reveals the abuses of power police are capable of in an educational setting, despite arguments that police make kids in schools safer by Republican elected officials like Senator Ted Cruz. While the reality of school shootings calls for action and new policy, current policies to place police in schools raise questions about accountability, access to victims, and power dynamics between children and state authorities. The numbers cited above indicate that there is widespread systemic abuse of power by police in schools, thus disputing the idea that police make children in school safer.

Both Bonds and Folmar were charged with the same Class B felony in Alabama: a school employee having sexual contact with a student under the age of 19 years. In the case of Bonds, this charge was disputed with the claim that the offending resource officer was not a school employee; rather, he was employed by the City of Dothan as a police officer and was paid by the city.
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According to court documents, Bonds presented a memo from the Dothan chief of police that states that resource officers "are obligated to the Chain of Command of the Dothan Police Department and not to the administration of the school to which they are assigned." Though Bonds' appeal failed and he ultimately pleaded guilty, his defense demonstrates one of the problems with stationing police officers in schools—though this varies state by state and county by county, SROs are generally accountable to the police station and the city they work for rather than the school.

Andrea J. Ritchie, a police misconduct attorney and organizer whose writing, litigation, and advocacy have focused on the policing and criminalization of women of color, explains that this makes it difficult for police in schools to be held accountable for misconduct.

"Generally speaking, in my experience, school resource officers are under the control of the police department and not under the control of the school," Ritchie says. "In one case in New York City, the principal intervened in incidents involving the police and a student, and the principal got arrested. So it's really clear in those instances who's in charge, it's the cop in the police department. So they're accountable to nobody."
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The hiring of resource police officers in schools started in the 1950s, but the practice only became widespread in the 1990s. The presence of SROs in education establishments has widely been credited to the 1999 Columbine shooting, supported by the idea that officers in schools are able to protect students from an active shooter as school shootings became more commonplace. After school shootings, it is routine for Republican politicians to demand armed cops be stationed in schools, claiming this will make children safer. However, according to a report by Learning for Justice, zero-tolerance policies spurred SRO programs in schools in the 1980s, in response to the perceived threat that school-based crime was on the rise.

In 2017, police officers were present in at least half of schools nationwide.
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There isn't much research about police sexual misconduct in schools, but some scholars have tried to make sense of the issue. F. Chris Curran writes that SROs are rarely arrested, but when they are, it's usually because of sexual misconduct. According to 2017 research by Philip Stinson and Adam M. Watkins using the 48 search terms developed by Stinson on Google News Alerts, there were 32 arrests of school resource officers between 2005 and 2011 for sexual misconduct. Over half (56 percent) of these incidents occurred with students in the officers' own schools. A study commissioned by the US Department of Education revealed that out more than 30,000 public schools that had police present during this period, there were fewer than five arrests of school resource officers per year for sexual misconduct. Stinson and Watkins' study also emphasizes that police officers tend to not arrest other officers, often ignoring minor transgressions by their colleagues, whereas regular citizens doing similar transgressions would be arrested for their crimes. The data obtained by DAME suggests the number of sexual misconduct by SROs cases is much greater.
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Ritchie says data like this is likely just the tip of the iceberg. According to the author and researcher, who has written a book about police violence against Black girls and trans folks, we are only able to access around 25 percent of police sexual misconduct cases in schools because of a gap in research around gender-based violence experienced by Black, brown, Indigenous, queer, and trans young people.

"Three quarters of rapes aren't reported; imagine how much higher that number is when the person that sexually assaulted you is the person you're supposed to report it to," Ritchie said. "I want to emphasize just how routine and mundane this is."

Research on sexual violence perpetrated by SROs is even more scarce, and Ritchie suggests that this is because most of the victims are likely to be girls of color.

 

[sober_teacher]

Houston cop lauded for stopping potential mass shooting near kid’s dance competition

Kendrick Simpo said he was working a second job at The Galleria mall in Houston’s Uptown District.

nypost.com

Thanks for finding that one, don’t remember seeing stuff on that or I just forgot.

Police Are Being Removed From Schools for Sexual Assault - Dame Magazine

In 2014, Dothan, Alabama police officer Lanice Bonds pleaded guilty to having sex with a 16-year-old student from Dothan High School, where he worked as a school resource officer (SRO) for over six years. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Three years later, at the same school, another...

www.damemagazine.com

This is certainly part of it, and we’ve all periodically seen cases where cops handcuffed a kid at school as well.

there’s one, and only one role a security officer should play in a school. Do their patrols and make sure no one gets hurt. They should play zero roles in disciplinary actions unless a weapon was involved.

 

[goldmom]

My kids went to Texas schools (graduated in ‘96 and ‘99) and there was ALWAYS an armed school safety officer at their high school.
Different century and never any resemblance to a situation requiring use of deadly force.

 

[RNHawk]

Police Are Being Removed From Schools for Sexual Assault - Dame Magazine

In 2014, Dothan, Alabama police officer Lanice Bonds pleaded guilty to having sex with a 16-year-old student from Dothan High School, where he worked as a school resource officer (SRO) for over six years. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Three years later, at the same school, another...

www.damemagazine.com

Thanks for that, I guess we will have to decide what is worse, the abuse or not having armed personnel. It sucks that we are at that point

 

[ANYCHawk]

Don’t know why anyone would disapprove of this

I'd prefer children not learn in an environment where armed guards are necessary

 

[HawkeyeShawn]

I'd prefer children not learn in an environment where armed guards are necessary

I’m pretty sure everyone prefers that.

Unfortunately I don’t think access to guns is going away anytime soon, so instead we need alternate solutions to protect our students and teachers. You don’t like the solution. I don’t like the solution. I’d much rather see us pass significant and meaningful gun legislation. Unfortunately our country is too divided on this issue.

 

[ClarindaA's]

To make it mandatory? Disagree completely. If a school district has the resources to do so, by all means. I’m just dubious that armed guards in a school actually improves school safety. One could argue the opposite, because those same officers get involved in school discipline, leading to kids getting arrested and such.

Why is it the only solution to school shootings is MORE guns in a school setting? Can we actually point to a time that the officer stopped a shooting before it got started?

I think you could find volunteers from a pool of former Leo, military, parents

 

[runkpanole]

I have no problem requiring a law enforcement officer on every campus. In fact, I like it as a piece of addressing school safety. Notice I said a piece. Still need red flag laws and limits on assault weapons.

 

[sober_teacher]

I think you could find volunteers from a pool of former Leo, military, parents

This is not something I’d want retired cop, volunteer parent, etc. no way I’d be okay with having anyone in that position without running background checks on them and making sure there are no skeletons in the closet; like if a guy was an ex-cop because of excessive force complaints for example.

 

[sober_teacher]

I have no problem requiring a law enforcement officer on every campus. In fact, I like it as a piece of addressing school safety. Notice I said a piece. Still need red flag laws and limits on assault weapons.

As long as it’s state-funded I could live with it. I don’t like it but sadly….

 

[Tom Paris]

Good at least they wont be soft targets that liberal trannys can attack

Not a bigot.

 

[Tom Paris]

I’m pretty sure everyone prefers that.

Unfortunately I don’t think access to guns is going away anytime soon, so instead we need alternate solutions to protect our students and teachers. You don’t like the solution. I don’t like the solution. I’d much rather see us pass significant and meaningful gun legislation. Unfortunately our country is too divided on this issue.

No they don't or something would be done about it. Having kids go through active shooter trainings is something that we tolerate as a society. Having kids get shot in schools is something we tolerate as a society. Guns are more important to our culture than kids dying from them. Sandy Hook taught us that.

Sorry, that was a reaction to your first sentence, but I agree totally with your second paragraph.

 

[goldmom]

I have no problem requiring a law enforcement officer on every campus. In fact, I like it as a piece of addressing school safety. Notice I said a piece. Still need red flag laws and limits on assault weapons.

Agree completely.

 

[WhiteSoxClone]

 

[ClarindaA's]

This is not something I’d want retired cop, volunteer parent, etc. no way I’d be okay with having anyone in that position without running background checks on them and making sure there are no skeletons in the closet; like if a guy was an ex-cop because of excessive force complaints for example.

I think you could do background checks on the people when volunteer, deep checks into criminal history and mental health.

 

[ANYCHawk]

I’m pretty sure everyone prefers that.

Unfortunately I don’t think access to guns is going away anytime soon, so instead we need alternate solutions to protect our students and teachers. You don’t like the solution. I don’t like the solution. I’d much rather see us pass significant and meaningful gun legislation. Unfortunately our country is too divided on this issue.

Im generally not on board with solutions "you don't like. I don't like" to help fix a problem.

 

[gohawks50]

I think you could do background checks on the people when volunteer, deep checks into criminal history and mental health.

I don't think just anybody even with background checks can be expected to run towards gun fire. As Uvalde demonstrated simply having an armed guard does not guarantee that the guard will respond appropriately when confronted with an actual crisis.

 

[lucas80]

I saw Rep. Dan Crenshaw on TV promoting this idea a few weeks ago. Here is the biggest problem, in a country where we already have labor shortages, Texas is now mandating a highly specialized person to be employed at every school. It doesn't specifically say in the information linked, but this appears to be an unfunded mandate. So, where are all these security officers coming from, who is paying them, will schools cut a teacher to pay for the security officer if it's an unfunded mandate, and what provisions will be provided for the liability protections the schools will want?

 

[lucas80]

Clearly this doesn't solve the actual problem, but, at least it provides cover to the gun fetish people.

 

[runkpanole]

As long as it’s state-funded I could live with it. I don’t like it but sadly….

Agreed. Florida has a LEO requirement, but funds it.

 

[ClarindaA's]

I don't think just anybody even with background checks can be expected to run towards gun fire. As Uvalde demonstrated simply having an armed guard does not guarantee that the guard will respond appropriately when confronted with an actual crisis

I think veterans and LEOs would

 

[gohawks50]

I think veterans and LEOs would

Maybe, but there were a lot of LEO standing around in the hallway at Uvalde.

 

[HawkeyeShawn]

Im generally not on board with solutions "you don't like. I don't like" to help fix a problem.

Great. What’s the solution to fix it? It’s already established that the 2nd amendment isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. With that being said, how do you fix it?

 

[sober_teacher]

Great. What’s the solution to fix it? It’s already established that the 2nd amendment isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. With that being said, how do you fix it?

Stop treating the 2nd amendment like it’s untouchable for one.

 

[globalhawk]

I think you could do background checks on the people when volunteer, deep checks into criminal history and mental health.

Must be an SRO. I wouldn't be happy with a volunteer.

 

[HawkeyeShawn]

Stop treating the 2nd amendment like it’s untouchable for one.

With the current and likely future state of DC, basically a 50/50 split, I believe the 2nd amendment is untouchable.

I’m not arguing against more strict laws on gun control. I am not a gun owner. I wish there were much more stringent laws and I’m for outright bans on certain guns. Unless you plan on rounding up firearms, the guns are going to be there.

Do you think with the split in DC that we can actually achieve significant enough community control laws that would impact school shootings? Dems would need a landslide in the house and senate. I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

 

[sober_teacher]

With the current and likely future state of DC, basically a 50/50 split, I believe the 2nd amendment is untouchable.

I’m not arguing against more strict laws on gun control. I am not a gun owner. I wish there were much more stringent laws and I’m for outright bans on certain guns. Unless you plan on rounding up firearms, the guns are going to be there.

Do you think with the split in DC that we can actually achieve significant enough community control laws that would impact school shootings? Dems would need a landslide in the house and senate. I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

I’d agree that it’s untouchable based on how House/Senate Republicans and conservative judges are choosing to interpret the 2nd amendment; but it feels as tho the majority of Americans do not agree with that at present.

 

[HawkeyeShawn]

I’d agree that it’s untouchable based on how House/Senate Republicans and conservative judges are choosing to interpret the 2nd amendment; but it feels as tho the majority of Americans do not agree with that at present.

So then, what are your solutions knowing that we are a long way from changing the 2nd. If you are unable to change gun laws, what can we do to protect our most vulnerable. I get it, Prost people don’t want armed personnel and metal detectors in our schools. However, it’s better than doing nothing. Arguing about gun control, as we have seen, really does nothing.

 

[KFsdisciple]

Our kids can be around armed guards at sporting events, airports/airplanes, banks, teen clubs, and more, and I've never heard anyone complain about it.

It absolutely stinks that we need to protect our children in this way from the mentally ill.. but there are people old enough to remember bomb drills in school during the cuban missile crisis.

Unfortunately a "gun free zone" sign isn't enough to deter criminals and the mentally ill from carrying out their illegal activity.

 

[sober_teacher]

So then, what are your solutions knowing that we are a long way from changing the 2nd. If you are unable to change gun laws, what can we do to protect our most vulnerable. I get it, Prost people don’t want armed personnel and metal detectors in our schools. However, it’s better than doing nothing. Arguing about gun control, as we have seen, really does nothing.

We don’t have to change the 2nd amendment. What we have to change is the mindset that reasonable gun control violates it.

 

[HawkeyeShawn]

We don’t have to change the 2nd amendment. What we have to change is the mindset that reasonable gun control violates it.

Do you see that happening anytime soon?

 

[fivecardstud14]

Our kids can be around armed guards at sporting events, airports/airplanes, banks, teen clubs, and more, and I've never heard anyone complain about it.

It absolutely stinks that we need to protect our children in this way from the mentally ill.. but there are people old enough to remember bomb drills in school during the cuban missile crisis.

Unfortunately a "gun free zone" sign isn't enough to deter criminals and the mentally ill from carrying out their illegal activity.

Kudos on writing three paragraphs without saying one meaningful thing.