AUSTIN, Texas — Next month, a new state law, House Bill 3 will go into effect across Texas. The legislation will require an armed security officer on every school campus during regular school hours.
Austin ISD (AISD) has been discussing how it will comply with the law, but the discussion has been stirring up some debate.
"We want to ask that they do not over militarize our schools. A lot of young people are scared of seeing guns on campuses," said Fabiola Barreto, the director of policy and advocacy at Youth Rights Texas.
A majority of public comments from AISD’s Board Information Session on Thursday night were from concerned parents, therapists and students about adding dozens of armed security officers to campuses.
Currently, AISD has 82 full-time police officers, including 43 school resource officers (SROs). But to comply with HB 3, the district would have to hire about 89 additional armed SROs.
There is a “good cause” exception to HB 3 that states that if a district does not have the funding or personnel to hire SROs, it can instead use a school marshal or trained non-peace officers who are carrying a weapon.
District leaders have made it clear that they won’t be arming teachers.
"My understanding of why we would be placing more uniformed officers is because the alternatives would be less safe,” David Kauffman, District 7 trustee, said at the AISD meeting on Aug. 10.
For AISD parent Amanda Mensouri, who has a son going into first grade in Austin and has already had to switch schools because of safety concerns, she is looking forward to having an armed presence on campus.
"Having that extra level of protection for the elementary school kids who are really sitting ducks and who are really vulnerable, who cannot defend themselves – it's our responsibility to defend them,” Mensouri said.
But since the officers won’t be on campus until after her son starts school, Mensouri is worried.
"It makes me feel like I want to go to school every day and eat with my child to be an extra layer of eyes and ears,” Mensouri said.
On the flip-side, some leaders from Youth Rights Texas believe having an armed officer can be dangerous for some students and create more anxiety.
“It's a very scary situation,” Barreto said. “Especially for our Black and brown young people that have a history of seeing police officers brutalize their communities and sometimes have their own personal experiences with that too."
Barreto said Youth Rights Texas doesn’t want to see the district not complying with the law, but just doing so in a way that will be safe and helpful to the students.
Kevin Foster, District 3 trustee and vice president, also brought that up in Thursday's meeting.
“I would fully expect that we move with all deliberate speed, which is to say that we're hiring folks with the right disposition. That we, in no ways, sacrifice any of our training, specifically. Providing the training to see that they have a caring relationship with our kids and with our community," Foster said.