Littlefield ISD held a safety training course, known as the Guardian Plan, on Friday, Aug. 5, 2022 for all LISD staff and employees.
According to the course website, the Guardian Plan trains educators to carry defensive handguns on school campus. The training allows LISD employees to carry handguns to protect students and faculty from any potential threat with deadly force.
LISD Assistant Superintendent Mitch McNeese said the training took them through active shooter scenarios.
“We had DPS Troopers come in and do an active shooter – what they call Civilian Training – for our staff,” McNeese said. “It was about a two hour training on threat assessment. Then, they actually took them to the campuses and went through an active shooter scenario. It was really good.”
LISD Superintendent Mike Read said he decided to start the safety training before the situation in Uvalde, Texas, where an 18-yearold gunman killed 19 students and two educators at Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022.
Supt. Read said it is sad that LISD has to do trainings like this.
“It’s sad that we’re training for this, in this day and age, but we’re going to do everything we can, like Mitch has said, to take care of our students and our staff,” Read said.
Mitch McNeese said all LISD teachers and staff were involved in the training.
“Custodial, maintenance, food service, we had them all,” McNeese said. “Everybody that’s employed here had to go through the training. It was the first one like it that we’ve ever put on and it was very good. It was educational, it was fun and the staff actually liked it. They were engaged with it.”
Supt. Read said Littlefield Police Department, the Lamb County Sheriff’s Office, the fire department, along with other first responders were involved in the discussion to bring about the safety training and what would happen if there was an active shooter situation.
McNeese said the goal of the training was to help teachers recognize odd behaviors from their students.
“The training was to have our teachers and staff be able to recognize behaviors that are out of the norm,” McNeese said. “Kids that are isolated, maybe the way they’re acting, just little things that they can pick up on that would hint to us that there might be an issue. That, along with the actual training of, ‘if there is an active shooter, here’s the protocol.’ and what you should do.”
McNeese said the school currently has security cameras and other things in place to protect the students and faculty from physical harm.
“On the physical end, we have surveillance cameras, we have locking doors, the list goes on,” McNeese said. “I mean, there have been a lot of steps that we’ve taken to make sure that the kids and staff are safe from physical harm.”
Supt. Read said the campuses have counselors on staff to help teachers and students with their mental health.
“We have counselors in place,” Read said. “If a teacher comes to us and they’re having issues, then we’re going to get them help just like we would a kid. It’s the same thing, if we see a kid that may have something going on, then we need to go right to them and try to see what the problem is and try to correct it before something happens. I have faith in all of our staff members.”
According to the Voices of America website, between 2020 and 1966, there have been 172 mass shooters. Of the those, 138 of them showed signs of crisis and 118 showed signs of mental illness, including mood and thought disorders.
Supt. Read said he would like for all of LISD faculty and staff to revisit safety training twice a year.
“I think we’re going to revisit this at Christmas and it would probably be a good idea for each campus to review what we did back in the summer,” Read said. “I don’t think you can do enough training. We will do this training again in the summer with our entire staff, because we’ll have new members. I want everybody to understand that we’re going to take this seriously. We’re going to have our staff prepared.”
During the Tuesday, June 28, 2022 School Board meeting, the Board decided to put up a sign at all LISD campuses that reads, “Please be aware that the staff at Littlefield ISD are armed and may use whatever force is necessary to protect our students.” Along with this safety precaution, they also installed a fence around the high school court yard and a Ring doorbell at all the LISD campuses.
McNeese said the sign is supposed to act as a deterrent for any potential person who may want to try to harm the students or faculty at any LISD campus. The administration sent out a survey to faculty asking if staff members should be armed. Over 90 percent were in favor of arming faculty and staff at all LISD campuses.
“In today’s world, you can’t be too careful,” McNeese said. “You never know. It’s just a wicked world. I’m glad that Mr. Read and the school board elected to go that way. I’m glad to be apart of it. Having armed staff members does not scare me whatsoever and I’m glad that we’re one of those school districts that are willing to take the next step for the kids.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact the Crisis Hotline available 24 hours a day every day. Please call 1-800-6871300.