(RestoreAmericanGlory.com) – Texas lawmakers passed Texas House Bill 3, which would mandate that every school have an armed security officer posted inside. Additionally, certain district employees are also required to provide mental health training.
Governor Greg Abbot signed the bill into law on Sept. 1 after the Uvalde school shooting that resulted in two teachers and 19 children losing their lives in May 2022. The bill went into effect on Sept. 1.
According to the new bill, every school district campus will need to have an armed security guard, including a school district peach officer, a commissioned peace officer employee, a school resource officer, a school district employee, or a school marshal who has completed the required school safety training and will be carrying a handgun while on the school premises.
The bill also calls for all employees who come into regular contact with students to go through mental health training and for an emergency response map to be installed, which will include access control, floor plans and labeling for each campus building, a multi-hazard emergency operations plan, and physical facilities designed to ensure the health and safety of students.
The Texas Association of School Boards has estimated that the cost of an armed officer being placed on each campus is $80,000; however, they are only giving $15,000 per campus, meaning that the rest of the money to cover the requirements of this law will not be provided by the association.
Chief Bill Avera, the president of the Texas School District Police Chiefs Association, told Fox 4 that this list of requirements was going to be a challenge for the 9,000 campuses in Texas that would need to implement it.
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