North Texas school district votes to arm teachers

As school shootings increase in occurrence across the country and threats touched close to home last month, the Nocona ISD's Board of Trustees made a decision to arm its teachers during the March 19 meeting.

Nocona joins more than 170 school districts in the Lone Star State allowing staff to conceal carry fire arms on campus, and becomes the fifth school district in Montague County along with Gold-Burg, Saint Jo, Montague and Prairie Valley.

Nocona Superintendent Dr. David Waters said, while many will point to recent activities as the reason behind the school board’s decision, discussions on arming teachers began long before that.

“This is the result of several months of conversation,” Waters said. “Many will want to point to recent events as the reason for this decision, but that is not the case.”

The fear of a school shooting struck full force on Feb. 25, when an 18-year-old senior at Nocona High School was arrested after tweeting an alleged threat against the school on his personal Twitter account.

The tweet was sent by Zachary Daniel Boyd, of Nocona Hills, at 5:25 p.m. and said “Nhs needa get shot up js (just saying).”

The arrest affidavit indicated NHS Principal Stephenie Wright began receiving numerous phone calls from parents that Sunday afternoon about the post and calls also quickly began pouring into the Nocona Police Department.

Boyd was arrested at 10:25 p.m. by the Montague County Sheriff’s Office on a complaint of terroristic threat, a third-degree felony. A criminal trespass warning was later made on Boyd prohibiting him on any NISD properties.

At the time, Waters indicated changes to safety policies might already be in the works.
“Safety-wise going forward we might look into further initiatives, without stating anything specific at this time,” he said.

Waters complimented the work of the teachers and law enforcement in swiftly handling the recent situation.

The administration office was inundated with phone calls the following day, and officers were placed at a home track meet the same week. Since that time, discussions have been ongoing regarding safety of students.

“We are doing everything possible to keep the kids safe,” Waters said. “I think our community has been very good about not wanting to know specifics, but wanting to know their children are safe.

"We are looking at safety and doing what we can. I hope their trust is well placed. We are working hard at it.”

Action was taken on three policies in regards to conceal carry for staff members, including: CKC (Local) Safety Program/Risk Management: Emergency Plans, DH (Local) Employee Standards of Conduct and GKA (Local) Community Relations, conduct on school premises.

“We had to make changes prior to the approval of carrying concealed handguns,” Waters said.  “Everyone with a concealed weapon cannot carry on campus, only people approved individually by the school board.

"The board is allowed to set up the criteria for those individuals along with training. With those policies passed, concealed carry may start as early as today.”

The upcoming school board election in May was cancelled due to the incumbents being unopposed for the race. Board members up for reelection include School Board President Guy Hill, Randy Murphey and Kyle LaMar.

Board members approved an update to the hiring authority of the superintendent, granting him authority over all “at will” employees while the school board will retain authority over all contract employees.

Previously, Superintendent Dr. Vickie Gearheart retained authority over contractual employees, as well as at will during her 13 years with the school district.

Right now, Waters wants the board to remain the authority for contractual people, which includes the superintendent, principals, athletic director and teachers.

As for non-contractual positions, the superintendent said it could bog down the board with routine hirings.

"Those positions change quite often and you don’t really want me coming to the school board every time a custodian or bus driver needs to hired," Waters said. "However, we want the board to keep control over contracts."

Professional contracts were discussed in executive session. Back in open session, the board approved renewal of all professional contracts with no non-renewals.

Policy Update 110 regarding school board elections from the Texas Association of School Boards was approved, along with five resale deeds from the City of Nocona.