The owner of a private security firm operating in several North Texas public school campuses was arrested this month for allegedly sexually assaulting a child.
Kirk Stanley Grable, the owner of Lone Star Protection & Security LLC in Weatherford, was arrested by the Willow Park Police Department on July 16 on charges of sexual assault of a child and prohibited sexual contact.
According to an affidavit obtained by Fox 4 KDFW, the victim came forward with their allegations against the 54-year-old suspect back in May. The alleged abuse began in 2021, before the victim was 17 years old, and increased in frequency from weekly to daily as time went on, the victim claimed.
A phone call between Grable and the victim monitored and recorded by police allegedly corroborated the latter’s claims.
The sexual abuse allegedly occurred in Grable’s home located in Willow Park. His connection to the victim is unknown. However, Lone Star Protection & Security has provided security services to Northwest ISD since January.
As previously covered in The Dallas Express, a state law came into effect last September requiring all public school campuses to have at least one armed security guard posted. Some North Texas school districts struggled to comply, with Dallas ISD — the second largest public school district in the state — starting the school year off short by 167 guards.
Dallas ISD has exhibited a spotty record in school safety, especially after one student shot another in the leg at Wilmer-Hutchins High School earlier this year. After lax enforcement of security protocols was blamed for the incident, the district responded with updated measures.
Grable is a public safety veteran who was a rescue specialist with Texas Task Force One (TX-TF1). Guards from his firm provided security at Prairie View, Sendera Ranch, Haslet, Peterson, and Hughes elementary schools this year.
A statement from Northwest ISD obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram claims that Grable himself was never physically present on any of these campuses.
“Kirk Grable has never worked at any district school, and we have no records that he has ever visited a district school or interacted with a Northwest ISD student,” the statement read. “The protection of our students is our top priority, and we take any allegations of danger to children seriously. Northwest ISD has informed Lone Star Protection & Security that its services will not be used going forward.”
On July 17, Grable was released from Parker County Jail after paying a total bond amount of $500,000.
The sexual predation of children has been a rampant issue in North Texas, with a serial child abuser who turned a profit by selling footage of his assaults being recently found guilty in Dallas.
Although the Dallas Police Department does not include a specific category for child sex crimes in its crime analytics dashboard, there were 366 sex offenses reported as of July 22 this year. Of these, 104 were considered family violence crimes.
Efforts to curb crime overall in Dallas have been frustrated by DPD’s chronic understaffing and underfunding. This fiscal year, Dallas City leaders allocated DPD a budget of $654 million, much less than the sums directed toward law enforcement in other high-crime jurisdictions. DPD only fields around 3,000 officers, which falls 1,000 short of the roughly 4,000 recommended by a City report.