TexasCHLforum.com

Got this 18 Aug 08 from TSRA-PAC:

By now most TSRA members have heard of Harrold I.S.D., a rural school district in
northwest Texas and the district's decision to allow certain designated members of the
school's faculty with a Texas concealed carry license to have their handgun inside the
school's buildings. This is viewed as a safety precaution. Read below as reported by
the Fort Worth Star Telegram, 8/15/2008.

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/834022.html

The district's decision is not in conflict with either Federal Gun Free School Zone Law
(18 U.S.C.922) or with Texas Penal Code 46.03.

Also, this policy is not due to any recent change to state law, federal law or a supreme
court ruling. It is certainly not a "loophole".
This "local control" was created by the Texas Legislature many years ago as a safety
feature to be used by school districts at their discretion.

Teachers have always been tasked with the safety of students. Teachers practice fire
drills and know what to do during tornado warnings. Why should protection be allocated
to a third party, outside existing faculty and staff, if the district believes qualified people
are on hand?

You may remember in 1997, Joel Myrick, principal of Pearl Jr. High School in Mississippi
stopped a psychotic teenager with a gun, saving the lives of innocent students and the
teenage gunman.

Harrold I.S.D. may not be the "first and only" school district in Texas
to make such a decision, simply the first district to go public.

TSRA would like to know.

If you have information regarding a school district in your area with a similar policy, please contact: agtripp@aol.com.

The "Guns In School" segment on was on Fox and Friends this a.m. (Monday, 18 Aug 08). The link below takes you to a number of video segments, including the "Guns in School" segment:

http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.h ... index.html

Segment featured David Thweatt, Superintendent of the Harrold School District, and Gayle Fallon, President of the Houston Federation of Teachers. Ms. Fallon thinks that guns in school, except for one armed security guard per school, is a bad idea. She stated that the Harrold School District can allow teachers and support personnel can be armed only because of a "loophole" (probably a close cousin of the "Gun Show Loophole") that will be closed in the next session of the Legislature.

Personally, I think that the Harrold School District is on the right track. Superintendent Thweatt mentioned that folks who have trained for the concealed carry permit probably have better training and better vetting than the security guards mentioned by Ms. Fallon.