By Lynn Janes
On March 30, 2023, the Silver School district held one of the three meetings for public input on arming security guards in the schools. This meeting took place at Jose Barrios Elementary. Approximately 40-50 people attended. William Hawkins, Silver Schools superintendent, headed the conversation and addressed the questions. Luis Alvarez, assistant superintendent, also attended.
This has been a conversation brought up to the board for some time. The district has a threat assessment committee that meets regularly. One thing they recently had done to address any threat to the schools was to require ALICE (alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate) training for all staff and students. This training has been used across the country.
Eddie Flores, board member, and Luis Alvarez, assistant superintendent, head the threat assessment committee. Flores has brought up the idea of arming the guards for a while.
Recently Michael Renteria, Sixth Judicial District attorney, went to all the school districts and addressed the boards in his area (Grant, Luna, Hidalgo Counties) and promoted having SROs (school resource officer) at each school and he would apply for the federal money to cover the cost. Renteria said he had talked with the local law enforcement, and they had all approved of the idea.
At that point the board decided to start looking at arming the guards at each school. Currently they have guards, but they have not been armed. They started the process of looking at the possibility with forming a committee with the guards, citizens, Flores, and Alvarez. The committee also drafted the policies that would be adhered to. A questionnaire had been sent out to parents and stakeholders. They had come back with most saying they would be for having armed guards.
In the state of New Mexico for the guards to be armed they must have the same training and be current as police officers. All the guards they currently employ have been police officers and retired but have kept up the training.
The participants in this meeting had received copies of the draft for the policies should they decide to arm the guards. Hawkins had also brought copies for others.
In 2018 POMS Insurance, an insurance company used by the state, put protocols in place for the option of allowing armed guards. Hawkins said three or four districts have already implemented armed guards.
Hawkins said they would not be present to be police officers but to prevent a crime from happening. They would be able to mitigate loss of life due to an emergency.
The conversation went to response time of the police. They all talked about the data and what the times had been locally. Bottom line it would be longer than for an armed guard on the premises.
Different people cited different data for both sides. Hawkins pointed out they would be in place to stop a shooting.
One of the attendees said the guards would not be trained like a police officer. Hawkins said yes, they would have to be by New Mexico regulation. They would also require them to have additional training that specifically would have to do with being in the schools. Hawkins said looking at the data they only had a .006 chance of an event.
One of the attendees asked what other options the school had looked at besides talking about it. They pointed out they could get into the high school with no problem. None of the doors had been locked.
Hawkins told them nothing would be off the table for them to talk about. The meeting had been to get their input on the proposal and report back to the board. He had put these public meetings together because the board had asked him to.
One of the attendees felt having armed guards would entice someone to come in to commit a crime. Many in attendance did not agree with this person.
The New Mexico legislature has made it very clear that the guards would have to have additional training besides the regular police training.
Another person brought up how they would handle someone who came in with a baseball bat and would lethal force be used on them. A conversation went on around that and other alternatives.
Hawkins went on to give information about the cost for the district for arming the guards. The cost of the handgun, holster, ammunition, etc. would be low side $1,856 to high side of $3,510. He said the legislature has made funds available for this expense.
The guards for the most part would be present and doing nothing because the chances of an event would be .006, a one in ten million.
An attendee asked if the schools had more violence in recent years and Hawkins said he would look into it since he had been here for only a short time.
Hawkins had prepared a PowerPoint presentation. One of the slides had some questions for them to look at. Does the potential loss justify the cost? Are we at high risk? Is this something for temporary or permanent? and Will it make us safer or feel more secure?
Someone brought up the question of how many guns and if the guards would have qualified immunity. Another interesting conversation came from someone wanting to know if the training would be scenarios or real world training. Hawkins said they would get the very same training as our police officers receive. They have already used the schools for training when school has not been in session.
An attendee had a few questions about training and hiring. They asked about background checks and psych evaluations. Hawkins said they don't currently do a psych evaluation.
Another person brought up body cams and had not seen it in the policy and Hawkins said it had been included in the equipment. The policy refers to holsters being level 1, 2, or 3 and an attendee wanted to know what that meant. Hawkins said they would comply with what the legislature required.
In the conversation someone had asked if they had considered stun guns. Hawkins said that was a good idea, and it would also require special training but would pass that on. Alvarez said they would have to have an additional sixteen hours for the stun guns.
They came back to response time for the police. Alvarez said it depends but recently they had done an emergency drill with Cobre School District, a plan required by the state, and it had been 2.25 – 4 minutes long.
An attendee made the statement: "Would you rather have a fire extinguisher in your house or wait for the fire department to come if you had a fire?"
Training kept coming up. Some of the people attending had law enforcement experience. At the academy they must have 80 hours of training and it continues throughout their career. The current security guards have been police officers and have received the same training as local and state police. A lot of different ideas continued to be bantered around.
Hawkins thanked everyone for the respectful conversation. He knew it had been a hard topic.
A young student made the statement "I would feel better if someone was on our side if something happened, and we didn't have to wait."
One of the attendees asked if they had asked the students input and if they had provided the information in multiple formats and languages. They seemed to feel that people and staff would be afraid to give input. Hawkins said he made the questionnaires anonymous for just that reason.
The conversation went to some of the recent school shootings. If a security guard that is unarmed responds he can be shot. One of the shootings talked about had to do with it taking 15 minutes for the police to arrive after the alarm had been set off.
One of the people asked if they had thought about metal detectors in all the schools. Hawkins lamented his reason for wanting to come to Silver City and he had some very mixed feelings about that. He said he would pass it on to the board.
An attendee asked about the number of guards they currently have, and Hawkins said six. The next question had to do with them attending games and Hawkins said they reach out to local law enforcement for those events.
A few stories came out about when a gun had saved lives. A mother said she had a child that had high anxiety and an armed guard would make her feel better.
The conversation switched to the causes of a child possibly coming into the schools to commit a crime. They talked about broken families, child abuse, drugs, etc. Their children have not been a priority. A teacher in the group said "We can't change what they might do or when or where. To have someone trained and that I trust would make me feel more comfortable."