Texas school’s ‘Guardian Plan’ allows teachers to have guns

Texas school’s ‘Guardian Plan’ allows teachers to have guns

In 2007, a school district in Harrold, Texas, made a controversial decision. It allowed teachers to carry concealed weapons on school grounds to protect students against potential shooters.

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Now, in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary attack in Newtown, Conn., that left 28 dead including 20 children and the gunman, the school district's methods are getting a closer look. In a report from CBS Dallas Fort Worth, superintendent David Thweatt says the district's "Guardian Plan" is a way of taking charge in the chaos of a potential shooting. Teachers are the true first responders, Thweatt says. "We need to be here to protect our children. Not four, five minutes or six minutes from now."

[Related: Will Obama use executive action on gun control?]

In an interview with Fox News, Thweatt said, "As educators, we don't have to be police officers and learn about Miranda rights and related procedures. We just have to be accurate."

Thweatt isn't sure his plan would have stopped the Newtown massacre; however, he contends that "active shooters go where there is no one there to resist. The Guardian Plan addresses that fact."

[Related: School nurse hid for four hours after Connecticut shooting]

Of course, many favor stricter gun control rather than arming teachers in the wake of Newtown. Several pro-NRA Democratic senators have come out in favor of gun control legislation, and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, a longtime advocate for gun rights, recently reversed his stance when it comes to guns and the gun lobby. "Friday changed everything. It must change everything," Scarborough said. "We all must begin anew and demand that Washington's old way of doing business is no longer acceptable."