School marshal program moves to development phase

The recent San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District regular meeting offered hours for debate with experts and others weighing in on the question of whether or not the district needs a school marshal program.

Most of those in attendance on Monday said they were there to speak about program concerns and to hear a presentation on the school marshal program presented by Director of School Safety and Health Services Doug Wozniak and San Marcos Police Department Chief Stan Standridge. The marshal program issue is one fraught with contention as many in the room were highly vocal against having concealed weapons on campuses. Numerous community members and students in attendance spoke against the concept of a marshal program in the public comments portion of the meeting.

At the end of the meeting which included a 2-hour executive session, the board approved with a vote of seven to one, with San Marcos CISD Trustee at Large Dr. Mari Salmi dissenting, moving forward with seeking a preliminary design of a marshal program for the elementary schools in the district. According to the board Monday, following the drafting of program specifics, the trustees will come back to the table for a vote for implementation.

Following public comments, Wozniak and Standridge each took time to explain in their joint presentation just what a marshal program entails in a 2023 environment where school shootings such as the one that occurred almost a year ago in Uvalde have changed the day to day security in area schools.

Both said they were attempting to dispel so much of the misinformation about programs such as this that they see making its way throughout the community in recent months, including the suggested arming of teachers.

“School Marshals are so much more than just hired guns. They are safety and security specialists,” Standridge said. He and Wozniak said that in order to become a school marshal and gain certification by Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, a person must pass a psychological examination, must complete the TCOLE training program, must pass a written state examination and must have a current handgun license.

Wozniak said that the school marshals would be appointed by the board of trustees and their identities would remain confidential.

Wozniak said the Wylie ISD model is one that is considered best practice in Texas. That program works with one marshal in place on each school campus, who acts as “operations” and as a safety officer. The marshal position would involve consistent and regular training.

Wozniak said that the marshal’s main responsibility would be to protect the campus, but that would not be their only duty. Additionally, these marshals would be trainers for the Civilian Response to Active Shooter Event course. Marshals would assist nurses through the taking of stop the bleed training. They would run threat assessments and assume the role of incident commander on campuses for smaller events, helping to relieve assistant principals of safety duties.

Wozniak assured those at the meeting that there would be a comprehensive vetting and background check undertaken in partnership with SMPD.

San Marcos CISD Trustee at Large Dr. Mari Salmi said to her understanding that school marshals would receive what amounts to approximately 80 hours of training and “some firearm practice,” expressing her concern as to whether this was enough or not.

Standridge said, “The goal is not to arm teachers. The goal is to arm select, full-time employees who have undergone the psychological, who have undergone the additional training, who have undergone the monthly training, and who I, and he [Wozniak] and the school board helped select. These will typically be law enforcement retirees.”

Standridge said that in his previous position in Abilene, it would take the police, on average, nine minutes to respond to an emergency, and knowing this, Wylie ISD officials implemented the school marshal program. He said this is the model that would be used to establish a similar program for SMCISD, if the program receives approval to move forward beyond a planning phase.

Standridge said with the amount of regular traffic congestion and the continued population growth in San Marcos, it takes officers eight and half minutes to respond to any priority-one call. He said on average the SMPD has six officers working in the field at any given time.

Salmi said she questioned the success rate associated with the Wylie ISD school marshal model.

“When I was doing research on the school marshal program, I found that only four schools in the state of Texas have adopted it. That’s 0.5 percent of school districts in Texas,” Salmi said. “I think there are reasons for that, and I think those reasons are the ones that we have heard from our constituents.”

Although strong anecdotal evidence that the program works would be preferable, Standridge said there has not yet been a school shooting at one of the campuses with a school marshal on site. He said that the belief that the program will prevent an attack needs changing.

“The paradigm must become [that] the presence on the campus will mitigate the loss of life,” he said.

“I have heard parents and pastors argue that the correct solution would be more school resource officers. You’re 100% right, and if we had them, Doug and I would be here suggesting that that is the very thing you need,” Standridge said. “Even if I had additional officers to give you, I wouldn’t.”

Standridge added a qualification to his statement, saying that the reason he would nott devote more officers to the school even if he had them is that “from 2010 to 2022 the population of San Marcos has grown 42% and in the same years, violent crime has grown 151%.”

Standridge said he would use additional officers to mitigate the sharp rise in violent crime.

“Chief Standridge has time and time again told us in closed session that they [additional school resource officers] are not coming,” San Marcos CISD Board of Trustees Vice President Miguel Arredondo said. “I find myself in a position that I never thought that I, personally, would be in … That is advocating on behalf of this program. I have heard the concerns from the community, [but] at the end of the day, it’s about school safety.”

Arredondo was not the only trustee who was in favor of the school marshal program Monday. San Marcos CISD District-4 Trustee Brian Shanks said that many campuses have added concertina wire fencing around their school yards and metal detectors at the door, even suggesting employing these measures in district schools.

“I actually prefer the school marshal program to making this a minimum security prison,” Shanks said.

The San Marcos CISD Board of Trustees meets on the third Monday of the montn. The next meeting for the board is a Special Board meeting set for 6 p.m., May 1, and the next regular meeting is set for 6 p.m., May 15.