Don’t mess with Texas: School district’s new security updates include guards armed with AR-15s to protect students from active shooters

Texas City Independent School District is protecting schools in its jurisdiction with AR-15-armed guards and more.

What are the details?

According to Fox News, some of the other measures include using facial recognition technology to identify who comes in and out of buildings, and tracking students with chips for security purposes.
The Texas City Independent School District, which is south of Houston, is ramping up its safety measures to protect its most valuable assets, and ultimately become the safest school district in the country.
Rodney Cavness, superintendent of schools for the Texas City Independent School District, said that the ideas were conceived by former Secret Service agent — and current district employee — Mike Matranga. The concepts were developed over a period of nearly a year.
The district was inspired to make dramatic and sweeping change to safety protocols within the schools in response to the Maya 2018 massacre at nearby Santa Fe High School, which left at least 10 people dead.
"We're not playing around," Cavness said. "This isn't some kind of little game to us. We put a lot of time, money, and effort into this."
Each school in the district has an assigned deputy, who is outfitted with an AR-15. The district has a total of 22 AR-15s for its guards. The weapons are kept under lock and key in a safe that can only be accessed with a specialized code.
"I think we're living in a sick society, and there are some deeply troubled people out there that want to do harm to kids and to campuses and teachers, and we're not going to let that happen," Cavness added.
Matranga told Fox News that buying time for law enforcement to arrive on a scene is of utmost importance.
"What we're trying to do is buy time, and by buying time and by having a deputy on campus or multiple deputies on campus, that time allows our deputies to respond and do their job," Matranga said.
"I'm a firm believer that we fight firepower with superior firepower," he added.

Anything else?

Earlier in February, a school in Palmetto, Florida, hired combat veterans armed with semi-automatic rifles to protect students from an active shooter situation.
The school hired the guards to comply with state legislation requiring state schools to have at least one "safe-school" officer.
"We're not looking for a fair fight. We're looking at an overwhelming advantage," Principal Bill Jones said, nn potential active shooter situations.
Jones specified that he wanted combat veterans in the guard positions.
"I wouldn't hire anybody who hadn't been shot at and fired back," Jones said. "I need someone who has been in that situation."
Powered by Blogger.