{"id":94759,"date":"2023-07-28T11:36:57","date_gmt":"2023-07-28T16:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=94759"},"modified":"2023-07-28T15:36:27","modified_gmt":"2023-07-28T20:36:27","slug":"94759","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=94759","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Signs Show Staff is Armed Go Up In Texas School<\/a><\/p>\n

In Groesbeck, Texas (about a third of the way between Dallas and Houston), the Independent School District (ISD) has had a school guardian program in place for nearly a year. On July 17, 2023, the Groesbeck ISD issued a press release showing they had placed signs announcing the program. The Guardian program is\u00a0a popular Texas program<\/a>\u00a0to enable local schools to have various members of their staff trained and armed, in order to respond to deadly threats in the school before police can arrive on the scene. The program is much more efficient than having School Resource Officers (certified police officers) assigned to the school. One SRO costs about $100,000 per year. A Guardian costs about $1,000 a year. A school district can afford 100 Guardians for the cost of one SRO. The Groesbeck School Superintendent, Anthony Figueroa, has embraced the program. From the\u00a0Groesbeck Independent School District press release<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Two months ago, I sent my monthly superintendent newsletter informing parents of our Guardian Program and new signage (see picture below). Being installed this week, signs will be posted on our campuses which state, \u201cATTENTION: GISD STAFF ARE ARMED AND TRAINED TO PROTECT OUR STUDENTS.\u201d12\u201dX12\u201d signs will be attached to all building entrances, and larger 3\u2019X3\u2019 signs will be displayed at all parking\/drive way entrances.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Last year the Groesbeck ISD school board watched the devastation of schools across the country, being forced to prepare for the unthinkable \u2013the potential of a school shooting, and considered appropriate policies. The Board updated local policy, authorizing a School Safety \u201cGuardian\u201d Program (TX Govt. Code 411.1901). Its purpose is to provide students and faculties an armed self-defense option prior to the arrival of Law Enforcement in the event of an active shooter or \u201cactive killer\u201d on campus.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Guardians are ISD staff members who have passed strict requirements and training. In order to protect them from becoming targets of an intruder, their names are confidential and are not to be released. I ask that names not be guessed at nor rumors passed in an attempt to protect these individuals.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Although the program has been in place for almost a year, the Board of Trustees approved for the district to make the program more visible. By providing the community this information and by placing signs up across the campuses, we are taking additional steps so that people know we are NOT an \u201ceasy target\u201d.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Superintendent of Schools Anthony Figueroa noted the last three school districts in which he was involved were all participants in the Guardian program. This says something about Texas and, perhaps, about Anthony Figueroa.<\/p>\n

From\u00a0the Groesbeckjournal.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI am proud to have been part of a Guardian program in my last three districts and I am proud that GISD had this program when I arrived,\u201d said Figueroa. \u201cMy responsibility is to ensure we properly train our Guardians and that we properly communicate this program to our community.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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As of October 2022, about 450 out of 1022 school districts in Texas were involved in the Guardian program. As of this writing, no school district involved in the Guardian program has been the subject of a mass killing in school.<\/p>\n

Placing the signs prominently on the doors and entrances to the campuses is a proactive step to stop mass killers from targeting schools. One of the chief drivers of these killers is the desire for fame, achieved by a high body count. Unknown armed protectors make planning to achieve a high body count difficult. Most of the killing in these events occurs in the first few minutes. Seconds of response time means lives. Having armed responders inside the situation as it occurs is the fastest way to stop the killers and save lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Signs Show Staff is Armed Go Up In Texas School In Groesbeck, Texas (about a third of the way between Dallas and Houston), the Independent School District (ISD) has had a school guardian program in place for nearly a year. On July 17, 2023, the Groesbeck ISD issued a press release showing they had placed … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-schools","category-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94759"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94772,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94759\/revisions\/94772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}