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Lawmaker Hopes 2019 Legislature Views School Security As Vital As Border Security

A San Antonio Republican lawmaker believes the Texas Legislature should be as intensely focused on preventing another school shooting as they are on securing the Texas-Mexico border with state resources and funding.

State Rep. Lyle Larson wants to see at least one trained police officer assigned to every school campus throughout the state of Texas.
 
“It is imperative that someone at the school, both from a situational and tactical perspective, will keep them from continuing to kill people within that school,” Larson said.

Larson said studies show when a school has a police officer who has received Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, or ALERRT, it significantly reduces the duration of the shooter’s rampage.

Larson hopes that preventing another school shooting will be a top priority for state lawmakers during the 2019 legislative session. 

Larson said it’s an issue that should rival other legislative issues, like securing the state’s border with Mexico.

Over the last two sessions, lawmakers provided an additional $1.6 billion to help the federal government improve border security. 

Larson said that now that the Trump administration is assuming more of that responsibility, state lawmakers should be able to use a portion of those state funds to assign a police officer to every school campus.

“I think it should be considered equally important, if not more important,” Larson said.
 
Larson said his office intends to file legislation during the 2019 session that would provide schools with more funding to hire those officers. 

Ryan started his radio career in 2002 working for Austin’s News Radio KLBJ-AM as a show producer for the station's organic gardening shows. This slowly evolved into a role as the morning show producer and later as the group’s executive producer.