What you need to know
Presented by Paul Duran, NEISD’s senior director of safety and security, the presentation discussed using non-law-enforcement alternatives to having an officer on each campus, hiring practices and the district’s applicant pool.
Duran said NEISD has had issues with recruiting peace officers to patrol their campuses due to an overall decline in law enforcement recruitment. To be in compliance with Texas House Bill 3, which requires armed and commissioned peace officer on school campuses, the district received an exemption in August 2023, which allows them to utilize a combination of security staff and police to service campuses while maintaining compliance with state law.
“House Bill 3 requires that school districts have armed personnel, defined as Texas peace officers, on every campus during regular school hours. However, districts can claim a good cause exemption from this requirement and utilize other programs that provide compliance and, more importantly, make our schools more safe and capable of emergency response,” Duran said.
According to Duran, NEISD officials formed a program, known as the Guardian Program, that allows the district to hire non-law-enforcement officers to help patrol the campuses. Duran said the program creates a specially trained team that has very limited rules of engagement. He also noted that the security staff is not a replacement for police officers.
“[Safety specialists’] constant presence serves as a deterrent to violent activity and provides for the quickest possible time to contact with the threat, or a faster resolution,” Duran said. “They are specifically designed to provide constant protection of the students and staff and school. They are encouraged to gain the trust and confidence of the students, the staff and foster a positive safety conscious climate.”
Safety specialists duties include:
- Inspecting, auditing and patrolling campus grounds
- To ensure the school is executing the district's safety and security policies and best practices
- Being subject matter experts in standard response protocols
- Guiding drills for those actions to make staff and students as capable and confident as possible on what actions to take during an emergency
- Coordinating with police on emergency situations
“They're at their campuses to protect but also bring a unique point of view to school operations, and are helping to develop a comprehensive safety culture,” Duran said. “They're developing relationships with students to be another trusted adult available to discuss their concerns and help them feel safe.”
About the program
Duran said the Guardian Program added extensive modifications to state requirements for a valid Texas license to carry and school safety certification.
“[The district has] added extensive enhancements and modifications to the training and preparation, as well as recruiting and hiring very selective applicants who will be dedicated to the role of safety and security and not have any other responsibility,” Duran said.
Duran said the district’s security specialist training is formed around four main elements that help strengthen the role and define responsibilities.
Basic training elements:
- Protection of students
- Interaction with police and other first responders
- Tactics to deny an intruder classroom or facility access
- Methods to increase the license holders accuracy with the firearm while under duress
“[The security specialists has] to be the right person who believes in the mission and has a protective mindset, especially when it comes to our children, so we targeted our job description and recruitment only to applicants that have extensive experience in security operations, emergency management, military or prior law enforcement,” Duran said.
Duran said since the job was posted, the district has received over 200 applications and have conducted roughly 80 interviews with applicants who meet staffing requirements. He also noted that the hiring process is very thorough.
Hiring process after initial screening includes:
- Expectations briefing
- A panel interview that includes an academic executive director
- Reference checks
- Fingerprint and background investigation
- Medical, physical and psychological exam
- Drug testing
“Nearly all those that we've hired are military veterans, thanks in part to being the Military City USA, so it gives us a rich applicant pool of serious, service oriented people, with the remainder coming from prior law enforcement, first responders or professional security backgrounds or a combination of those,” Duran said.
According to district officials, only 1 in every 6 applicants make it through the initial screening process.
Quote of note
“[Safety specialist’s] job is not only to be prepared to address an active threat or violent incident, but also to be proactive in the prevention, protection, response, recovery and to any other safety particular issue out of campus. So their training goes above and beyond state requirements and includes basic first aid training, stop the bleed training, incident command de-escalation strategies, standard response protocols and other emergency courses,” Duran said.
