Wood County Constable Kelly Smith discusses the challenges presented with potentially arming teachers during a Mineola ISD town hall on campus safety on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. (Cory McCoy/Staff)

School security measures and the possibility of arming teachers were among the topics discussed at a recent town hall in the Mineola school district.  

The special meeting of the school district’s board of trustees was put together to give parents and community members an update on the security measures the school district has added over the past year and to gather input on possible future measures, including whether or not to arm teachers.

More than 50 parents attended the meeting at Mineola Middle School. 

Mineola Police Chief Chuck Bittner, Fire Department Capt. Dusty Cook and Wood County Precinct 2 Constable Kelly Smith joined the school board and Superintendent Kim Tunnell for the town hall last week.

Over the past year, the district installed dozens of new security cameras, worked with vendors to find locking mechanisms for classroom doors and budgeted for the creation of a district police department and an additional counselor to help with the social and emotional side of violence prevention.

The district police department will start with one officer.

While parents had a number of questions, the biggest topic was that of arming teachers.

Tunnell said the district had looked into it, even reaching out to other districts in Texas that had armed teachers, in order to gather information on the feasibility.

Board President John Abbott said if the district does put forth a proposal, it would require monthly training, physical and mental health evaluations and safes in the classroom for weapons.

Parent Tori Mosher was concerned that if teachers are armed, students would quickly find out who had a weapon.

“I have five kids and I can’t hide anything,” Mosher said. “They will know that there are guns somewhere and they will make it their mission to find it.”

Constable Kelly agreed, asking attendees for a show of hands if they knew where their own parents had hidden their guns.

Tunnell said the districts she reached out to use safes in the classroom, and teachers who did not volunteer to be armed typically had pepper spray in the safe.

Arming teachers also would mean the district’s insurance costs would go up. Tunnell said they didn’t have an estimate yet, but she believes the cost would be significant.

Constable Smith said he would do everything he could to ensure any armed staff, including the new district police officer, had the best training available.

“This arming the teachers idea is no light thing. There’s gonna be so many training requirements with it, I see it lasting maybe a year if it’s initiated,” Smith said. “My little girl goes here, too. If (teachers are) carrying a firearm and (expected) to fire back with kiddos running around, they have to be held to a higher standard (of training).”

Parents seemed to agree. Most asked the board to find a way to hire additional school resource officers.

Carlos D’Angelo, a parent and local attorney, spoke to the board about insurance risks and liability that could come from arming teachers.

“If the school is going to be doing this it needs to be reasonable and supported by data,” D’Angelo said. “If it isn’t then all of you face potential liability in the event of a tragedy.”

D’Angelo said the board needed to ask questions of their provider to determine whether staff would be held liable if a stray bullet hit students. He suggested the district instead look into a matching fund scenario with the city to help fund additional officers.

Parents also were concerned about the perimeter security at campuses.

“We’ve got to figure out a way to secure the perimeters,” board vice president Kyle Gully said. “Of course we don’t want it looking like a jail, but we’ve got to keep our kids safe.”

Other challenges included modernizing outer door security in the district.

“The middle school is our newest facility in Mineola and it’s over 30 years old. These building weren’t designed for the security we need today,” Tunnell said.

Tunnell said the district also had received an estimate to retrofit all outside doors for badge access, which would cost about $350,000.

So far the district has secured a back parking lot at the high school with a traffic gate and eliminated parking spots that were against the building in order to improve visibility. They also have cleared tree lines at all campuses.

Cook said the fire department also does period checks on the campuses.

“We try to do several walkthroughs a week. We pop in and do a lot of unannounced walkthroughs and checks,” Cook said. “It’s not something that’s budgeted for, but we feel like we need to do it.”

The board also discussed the need for increased focus on social and emotional learning and the success they’ve had with a new app that allows students to report anonymously.

Tunnell said students have reported a wide array of issues, not just bullying or safety concerns.

As the district moves forward with implementing new security measures, they asked parents to reach out to board members with questions or concerns.

Twitter: @TMT_Cory