Amarillo area schools talk safety measures, some seek enhancements after recent shooting

The bright red signs posted at entrances to Highland Park Independent School District campuses are hard to miss.

“Highland Park ISD Board of Trustees has adopted the policies that allow certain employees to carry concealed weapons on school property for the protection of our students and staff,” they say.

While calls ring out to arm teachers in schools after the deadly school shooting in Florida last month, many school districts in Texas already allow it — including 890-student Highland Park ISD on the eastern edge of Amarillo.

“Safety, unfortunately, ranks right up there with educating the kids in today’s schools,” Superintendent Jimmy Hannon said. “I think that’s paramount. If they don’t feel safe, then they can’t learn.”

Texas school districts are allowed to individually make decisions about equipping employees with firearms. Highland Park’s school board unanimously signed off on its own policy in 2015.

Hannon said 10 percent of the 125 employees that work there either carry concealed 9mm handguns or have quick access to them. The guns are supplied by the district, and each armed employee has a biometric fingerprint gun vault for storage.

The program is voluntary, but the employees must have a valid license to carry in Texas. The district’s policy also prescribes additional training in crisis intervention and management of hostage situations. The identities of those authorized to carry are kept secret as an added layer of security.

“Seconds count,” Hannon said, “and I think a more immediate response the better.”

In Texas, at least 172 of the 1,023 independent school districts statewide have a policy allowing employees to carry firearms, according to the Texas Association of School Boards. That number is up from about 110 two years ago.

“Having properly trained people with weapons, good guys with weapons in the school, I think is not only a deterrent but a defense for school shootings,” said state Rep. John Smithee, a Republican from Amarillo.

In 2013, Smithee voted for the Protection of Texas Children Act, which gives districts the option of appointing “school marshals” authorized to carry guns. Appointees complete police-style training and are granted the authority of a peace officer to make arrests.

School districts also have another option. School boards can adopt a local policy that authorizes the designation of specific employees who are authorized to carry firearms on school premises.

Highland Park ISD falls into the second basket. The only other school district in the Amarillo metro-area with a similar policy is Bushland Independent School District.

‘So quick’

Charles Mestas said he still remembers the smell of gun smoke as he helped gunshot victims to safety more than 25 years ago, in 1992, when a 17-year-old student at Palo Duro High School opened fire in a hallway with a .22-caliber pistol.

Six students were shot at the Amarillo Independent School District campus and a seventh was trampled.

“It just happened so quick,” said Mestas, 62, who was a football coach and teacher at the time. “Even if someone was armed right by him, they couldn’t have shot at him because there was just too many kids in the hallway.”

There are “pros and cons” to armed staff, he said, “but those things just happen in split seconds.”

An FBI study in 2013 said it was rare for armed citizens who are not law enforcement officers to end an active shooter event. Of 160 active shooting incidents analyzed, only five ended after armed individuals exchanged gunfire with the shooters.

Still, President Donald Trump has floated the idea of arming up to 20 percent of teachers to fortify schools against shootings like the one in Florida that killed 17 people.

Teachers groups have been highly skeptical. The 3.2-million member Texas State Teachers Association said teachers know they would be no match for attackers armed with powerful, AR-15-style weapons that have been used in many recent mass shootings.

“You don’t reduce gun violence in classrooms by putting more guns into schools,” the group’s spokesman, Clay Robison, said in a statement. “We believe that government needs to take additional steps to reduce the ease with which guns, including assault-type weapons, are falling into the hands of people who shouldn’t have them.”

Highland Park ISD residents have been supportive of the district’s “Defender Program.”

“This, combined with their state-of-the-art security system, gives parents peace of mind,” Shannon Garrett Leach, whose children graduated from the district, wrote on Facebook.

No one was killed in the 1992 shooting at Palo Duro High. But in the aftermath, Amarillo ISD boosted its security with the addition of more liaison officers from Amarillo Police Department.

The 33,000-student school district, which is the largest in the Texas Panhandle, currently has 11 officers. There are two stationed at each of the four high schools. Officers rotate between middle schools and visit the 37 elementary campuses as needed.

It has also invested in controlled-access entryways to all its elementary schools. The entryways include doors that are remotely unlocked, surveillance cameras and protective glass. The configuration directs visitors through a reception area near the school’s front office, and a computerized system tracks visitors.

‘Times have changed’

Amarillo ISD Superintendent Dana West said many school districts as big as Amarillo ISD had their own police departments, but she was reluctant to say if she supported adding armed staff. The district has continued to bolster other means of security in recent years, she said.

Voters in November approved the sale of bonds to fund additional bullet-resistant glass at campuses. West said vigilance and building relationships with students was also key.

“Our teachers pay attention to kids and what’s going on in their lives,” she said. “Our counselors are very involved. What we want to do is we make sure our scholars and their families have services before things get to feel hopeless.”

Kimberly Anderson, head of the parent-teacher association at South Georgia Elementary School, where her two sons attend school, said she preferred a focus on mental health issues and gun control to protect schools.

“I think our district is taking all the steps necessary without turning our schools into security centers that aren’t welcoming environments for our kids,” Anderson said. “I’m not in favor of metal detectors at every door and having armed guards there. I want them secured and I want them safe, but we have to draw a line.”

The much smaller Highland Park ISD has similar entryways to Amarillo ISD. It has also asked residents to approve a bond measure in May that would fund additional security upgrades like replacing plate glass at the entrances with metal doors that have small, side lights.

Hannon said 10 years ago he likely would not have supported arming his staff. But shooting after shooting has convinced him of the necessity.

“My thought would’ve been if I want to go to work every day and carry a gun I’d have gone into law enforcement,” he said.

“But times have changed, and that’s changed my opinion as well.”