Christoval ISD Allows Guns
By: KLST News
Updated: February 2, 2013
Qualified school employees of the Christoval school district are now allowed to carry handguns on campus.
Wednesday evening district trustees approved the change to their school safety policy in part because of their distance from law enforcement.
The Christoval Independent School District is one of very few schools in Texas to adopt the guardian program. Superintendent David Watkins said this was a necessary step to protect the student body and the faculty.
"Because we are a rural school, it will take several minutes, typically, before law enforcement can get here." Walker said, "The high profile shootings we studied and the research we looked into, most school shootings last anywhere from 12 to 15 minutes. Well that's about how long it takes law enforcement to arrive so we're looking at limiting causalities."
School employees in the "guardian plan" will only be allowed to carry handguns after approval by the Christoval school board. They'll also be required to have concealed handgun licenses, and complete an advanced training program.
"Part of the advanced training deals with hostage situations, crisis intervention, armed intruders," Walker said, "then advanced training on the various aspects of firearms like accuracy and precision, weapons malfunction, and the daily use as far as being a guardian."
Walker said it is unfortunate to take these measures of safety but he said it is all about protecting the children.
"Unfortunately we're in an environment right now where we're going to have to take these types of measures; whether it's reinforcing a door, adding a fence, adding surveillance, or arming an employee, today that's the world that we live in. Hopefully the future will be different but as far as right now those are the things that we can do to have some control over the safety of our kids."
Wednesday evening district trustees approved the change to their school safety policy in part because of their distance from law enforcement.
The Christoval Independent School District is one of very few schools in Texas to adopt the guardian program. Superintendent David Watkins said this was a necessary step to protect the student body and the faculty.
"Because we are a rural school, it will take several minutes, typically, before law enforcement can get here." Walker said, "The high profile shootings we studied and the research we looked into, most school shootings last anywhere from 12 to 15 minutes. Well that's about how long it takes law enforcement to arrive so we're looking at limiting causalities."
School employees in the "guardian plan" will only be allowed to carry handguns after approval by the Christoval school board. They'll also be required to have concealed handgun licenses, and complete an advanced training program.
"Part of the advanced training deals with hostage situations, crisis intervention, armed intruders," Walker said, "then advanced training on the various aspects of firearms like accuracy and precision, weapons malfunction, and the daily use as far as being a guardian."
Walker said it is unfortunate to take these measures of safety but he said it is all about protecting the children.
"Unfortunately we're in an environment right now where we're going to have to take these types of measures; whether it's reinforcing a door, adding a fence, adding surveillance, or arming an employee, today that's the world that we live in. Hopefully the future will be different but as far as right now those are the things that we can do to have some control over the safety of our kids."
