ALLEN, Texas – A school district in north Texas voted unanimously Monday evening to provide an armed security officer at every campus, according to a report.
With only two individuals signed up for public comments, the Allen Independent School District Board of Trustees approved providing armed security officers on all 17 campuses within its scope and authority. The vote was to meet the formal requirements of a new Texas law known as House Bill 3, reported NBC 5 DFW.
The school district is working with L&P Global Security, based out of Dallas, to begin staffing campuses that do not have school resource officers assigned to them as soon as August 10.
“We began looking for a plan to cover our elementary and the Anderson Early Childhood Center with armed security,” said Brent Benningfield, assistant superintendent of operations for Allen ISD.
According to HB3, “We need to be in pursuit of compliance by September 1st,” Benningfield said. “The best thing to do is to provide that security for our students and staff. Why would we wait a month to provide it when they’re already in the building?”
The security contract runs through the 2023-2024 school year, the news outlet reported.
“These folks are there as armed security to protect against an active threat,” Benningfield said. “Right now, the way the contracts are built, it will be 30 minutes before and after school at these elementaries.”
Security for after-school programs will continue to be handled by the Allen Police Department.
“All of these security officers will be uniformed and easily identifiable,” Benningfield said. “The L&P company agreed to structure this much like an SRO program and have a consistent officer at each elementary day after day…. We would have a consistent person at each campus to be able to develop those relationships and have consistent practices. They also have a plan for subs that if one of those individuals is out of illness or things, we have appropriated subs… In addition to that, they will provide us with a sergeant as a point of contact and someone to oversee the program… Every single one of these officers that we would receive security will be level three commissioned.”
L&P Security requires some of the same training programs as the Allen Police and Fire Department, Benningfield noted.
“I will say that the training as far as active shooter training, civilian response to active shooter, those things, the alert system, they use it,” Benningfield said. “They use the exact same systems, the exact same training that our first responders would.”
Allen ISD will pay approximately $694,000 for the one-year private security contract, NBC 5 reported.
“We will be receiving $15,000 per campus for House Bill three to go towards this compliance that’s going to give us about $360,000,” Benningfield said.
The school district will explore ways to pay the remaining balance as the additional funds would not be due until the Spring semester, Benningfield said.
“Last spring, I know you’re aware, we received from the State we received a safety allotment. Now, that money came attached essentially with a to-do list of physical safety features to add to buildings,” Benningfield explained. “We can send our evidence of compliance to the state and ask that that money be re-appropriated or allowed for our board to be appropriate for other safety measures.”
On May 6, 2023 an officer with the Allen Police Department heroically shot and killed a mass shooter who murdered eight people and wounded seven others at the Allen Premium Outlets mall.
Among those killed were three children, including two young sisters and a little boy who died alongside his parents. Three other adults were killed, including a mall security guard who died helping direct shoppers to safety.
The unnamed officer “engaged the suspect and neutralized the threat,” officials said. The individuals wounded in the shooting ranged in age from 5 to 61.
The horrific tragedy was undoubtedly on the minds of those voting to approve the presence of armed security officers at Allen schools.
