WALL, TX — "I remember standing in the high school commons area, as a high school principal, and kids gathered at lunch and I remember thinking, 'We have no plan. We have no way to protect these kids,” Dacy said.
Russell Dacy, now the superintendent of Wall ISD, said they had a disaster plan, an emergency management plan; but it was after the sandy hook school shooting and the way the shooter was able to get into the building that made him rethink the school's safety plan.
"I felt very secure, I felt very good about keeping our kids safe prior to that but when you're seeing 200 kids in one area and we had no way to respond to an active shooter event besides running, and that's certainly one aspect of it but we need to be on the defensive a bit better,” Dacy said.
They implemented the guarding program in 2013…but not without some backlash.
"When you talk about guns, and particularly guns in schools, you're gonna have a disagreement. There's gonna be support for it and there are those who would prefer not to have that,” Dacy said.
Dacy admitted even as an avid outdoors man and someone who enjoys firearms, he was a bit hesitant as well.
"That's not what we signed up to do to be an educator is to carry a weapon. The mindset had to shift a little bit to what our goals were, what our ultimate purpose was to do that,” Dacy said.
However, weeks of training, licensing, and hours on the range brought reassurance. Once the mindset changed, an accepting attitude followed.
"What we're trying to do is minimize casualties and response time is everything,” Dacy said. "I can remember the feedback was the majority was in support of arming our teachers."
And not just from the community.
"You ask the majority of our teachers, and even our students, they feel better about knowing that we're a guardian school I believe,” Dacy said.
He says the students are very aware of what happens in the world…and they want to talk about it.
"I've heard more comments from students, through teachers, that more students are asking about the guardian program and they're glad, they feel safe,” Dacy said.
But as a reminder, Dacy offers this message.
"Our guns are secure, they're not going to be in the reach of a student. They're not laying around. We are trained to use them,” Dacy said.
Dacy says that the guardians have continued training each month.