Schools ramp up security with armed officers to comply with new Texas law
El Paso TX July 29 2023
Schools ramp up security with armed officers to comply with new Texas law (KFOX)
There will be an increase of armed officers on school campuses as districts work to comply with Gov. Greg Abbott’s new state law.
House Bill 3 was signed into law in June, and it requires every Texas school district to have at least one armed officer per school campus. The officers could either be Texas Certified Peace Officers or school districts also have the option to commission their own employees to carry a firearm.
The state also provided funding for districts to enforce the requirements in the amount of $15,000 per school campus and $10 per student.
KFOX reporter Jennifer Cuevas spoke with officials of El Paso’s three largest school districts about how they will be adjusting to the new state law.
At El Paso ISD, Manuel Chavira, the chief of police services said the district is close to having officers at all 76 of its campuses. Chavira said this is possible by using the district’s own police department and off-duty officers with the El Paso Police Department.
Chavira added that the district is also working on developing a new partnership with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.
Over at Socorro ISD, Superintendent Dr. Nate Carman said he believes the district was ahead of the state in this matter.
“Currently out of the 72, I think we have 65 positions filled and 3 additional positions are pending in human resources so we’re not 100 percent staffed, but we still have more than enough to put one on every campus,” Carman said.
Carman also spoke about the district’s challenges in filling positions for the police department.
“There are not enough coming out of the academies to staff our department and everyone else’s department,” he said.
On the option of the district commissioning its own employees to carry a firearm, Carman said that it is not something the district will be doing for the time being.
“We believe it’s best done by police officers, they are trained, they are licensed and that’s the focus of their job is to provide security,” he said.
One district that will have to commission its employees is the Ysleta Independent School District. Superintendent Xavier de la Torre emphasized the district will be complying with the new law.
“The larger the campus the larger the enrollment, the more officers. You can expect to see multiple armed officers, armed individuals at the high school campuses, slightly less numbers at the middle schools and we are committed to at least one at every elementary school,” he said.
Ysleta ISD is the only one out of the three that does not have its own police department.
Instead, YISD has secured its campuses with security guards and off-duty El Paso Police officers.
“I think it is good for the optics but what we’ve had in place, certainly since I arrived in 2013 has been every bit as effective as what the neighboring school districts have in place,” De La Torre said.
Superintendent De La Torre added he believes the district’s hybrid plan is just as effective as having a police force without taking away officers from EPPD.
“The district is in the position where we’d be able to pay those police officers more than the city is currently paying them,” he said.
As for the funding being provided by the state, Chief Chavira of EPISD and Dr. Carman of SISD said they do not believe the bill was funded properly.
“It is helpful, could we have used more? Yes, is the general fund going to have to make up the difference in that allotment, yes,” said Chavira.
Carman added Socorro ISD has budgeted $13 million for the 2023-2024 school year to cover the district’s police force, security cameras and other security measures.
“House Bill 3 if I’m doing the math correctly $15,000 per campus is about a 3/4 of a million, $10 a student is about another half a million so that’s about $1.25 million, we’re spending more than 10 times that amount already so it is woefully inadequate,” he said.
Even with the new and old security measures in place, the three leaders spoke about the importance of the community keeping an eye out for one another while emphasizing the consequences for those who threaten the safety of others.
“We’ll still rely on security officers to be our eyes and ears of administrators at their respective schools,” De La Torre said.
Chavira added the district will be fully investigating any threats made to their district campuses, regardless of the follow-through.
“It’s good to advise the parents, advise the parents that they need to keep an eye on what their kids are doing because there’s consequences to pranks and jokes and false alarms that they think are funny but it has long term consequences to the future of their child,” said Chavira.
