ABC-7 Special Report: How your children are kept safe from gun incidents in schools

Mass shootings have schools around the country beefing up security.

ABC-7 spoke with school administrators, security personnel, police officers in El Paso and they all stressed just how security has improved.

Each district has its own specialized active shooter plan.

And students and staff both train for it.

During a typical day at Gonzalo and Sofia Garcia Elementary School, boisterous students roam the halls of the Canutillo school.

“This is fourth grade coming for lunch,” principal Tangela Carter tells ABC-7 as she leads the crew on a tour of the school. “The perimeter doors, all outside doors are locked. But one of our practices is that they’re supposed to be locked at all times.”

Carter, who previously was a principal in Dallas, compares school security in the two cities.

“Right now, they’re about the same,” Carter said. “I think the things that have occurred — Sandy Hook and other places have caused security measures to go up.”

El Paso school districts say they conduct drills once a semester, as recommended.

Everyone from staff to students knows what they’re supposed to do.”

Carter called a lockdown drill to demonstrate.

Suddenly, the loud hallways fall silent.

“See how they covered (their door windows)? Lights off, no computer monitors on, and teachers and kids (moved) to the back of the room. Quiet, totally quiet.”

On the playground, more than 60 pre-k students are suddenly gone.

“This is where they would be,” Carter said while looking out of the windows of a school door. “Do you see them? No. But they’re out there and they’re hiding. And that’s how they’re supposed to be – abandoned clothes and toys.”

Those students all found hiding places in less than two minutes.

“Okay, we’re going to go back to call it off,” Carter said.

It’s practice now, but if a gunman ever walked in, every second could mean the difference between life and death.

“Please remember to keep those outside doors locked, even during the day,” Carter said. “Those outside doors should be locked.”

“We have to keep that in mind, which school is next, which business is next? And to be able to keep up with those times, we have to be prepared,” Carlos Carrillo, Safety & Security Manager for Canutillo Independent School District said.

And becauase of that, more and more school districts are taking matters into their own hands by arming employees.

The Roles Of School Guardians, School Marshals

In Texas–districts can opt for a school guardian or a school marshal.

A school guardian is a district employee with a concealed carry permit who’s allowed to carry a weapon at all times. No psychological evaluation or specialized tactical training is required.

A school marshal is a district employee, whose identity is secret, who must be screened, and complete an 80-hour training program.
A marshal’s weapon must be locked in a safe.

School guardians and school marshals are more common in rural parts of the state-where sometimes it takes law enforcement at least 30 minutes to arrive on scene. But it’s a much different story in larger cities like Dallas, Houston and here in El Paso.

“In El Paso, I think we’re really blessed to have multiple law enforcement organizations to quickly respond to situations that may occur, but if you’re out in the middle of Texas in a very rural community, without all of the resources like in El Paso, then it would a very different situation. So, I think you have to base it on a district’s individual needs,” Shane Griffith, Spokesman for the Canutillo Independent School District said.

There are no school guardians or school marshals at any El Paso schools.

The Canutillo district, with more than 6,000 students, hires school resource officers– armed police officers who are trained to take down a gunman, but may or may not be on campus when trouble arrives.

“We are contracted with the anthony police department, so they can provide the resources as school resource officers. These officers rove, they move from campus to campus wherever they’re needed. We have our security officers, that rove as well from campus to campus,” Carrillo said.

The El Paso ISD has its own police force.

“We have 40 officers in the EPISD police and we have officers assigned to every high school and middle school our elementary schools are covered by those officers in those schools feeder pattern so they visit those schools during the week,”Manuel Chavira, Safe and Secure Manager said.

The Socorro ISD also has its own force with 34 armed officers.
And Ysleta ISD opts for school resource officers with 7 SRO’s. One at every high school.

Though school officials say everyone from staff, to students and security are fully prepared to respond to an active shooter,
They hope it’s a day they never have to see.

“We have to embrace the fabric of society as it is today, what we envisioned as the perfect world, back in the 50’s those were it seemed like naive times and more innocent times now with the mass shootings and we have teens performing these atrocious acts with gun violence, we have to embrace that that’s society, and we have to plan accordingly,” Chavira said.

The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement or TCOLE, which oversees the marshal program, could not comment on the exact number of marshals in the entire state, because of pending litigation.

To find out more about security at specific, local school districts, click on the link under related content to the left of this article.