Carroll ISD trustees have discussed implementing a proposed school marshal program.
During a board meeting on Monday, trustees explained that the marshals would not replace the school resource officers (SROs) who currently protect the school; instead, they would fill in the gaps when the SROs are absent or unavailable on campus. The SROs are provided in partnership with the Southlake Police Department.
“Southlake PD is the gold standard. They do an outstanding job covering the campuses,” Carroll ISD Superintendent Jeremy Glenn said, according to Fox 4 KDFW.
However, this school year, the district has not met the state requirement to have an armed officer at every campus 10 times, or about 1% of the time.
“It’s reasonable,” Glenn said, according to KERA News. “Police officers get sick, they take personal days, they have occasional absences just like everybody else.”
According to a document on the district’s website, the marshals would be trained CISD employees licensed to carry a concealed 9 mm weapon loaded with “frangible ammunition designed to disintegrate on impact for maximum safety and minimal danger to others. ”
The marshals would also be required to undergo physical and psychological evaluations, and their identities as marshals would be confidential, known only to key district employees and law enforcement.
The district’s training would include an initial intensive two-week course over the summer and an 8-hour active shooter training each year after that.
In addition, the district’s school marshals “must complete and pass the TCOLE weapons qualification course of fire two (2) times per year at a firearms training center utilized by TCOLE [Texas Commission on Law Enforcement] or a TCOLE commissioned law enforcement agency,” according to the district document.
“We are not proposing to arm current staff. We are specifically looking at hiring retired law enforcement or military to cover campuses in the event an SRO is unavailable,” School Board President Cameron Bryan stated, per Fox 4.
At the meeting on November 18, the board heard comments from concerned parents.
One speaker expressed concerns about bringing more guns into the school, and another questioned the cost of the program. Another parent suggested that the district expand its current SRO program with the police department, an idea that Trustee Alex Sexton echoed, per KERA News.
No action was taken during the meeting, but the topic may be addressed again.