One Texas state school district is amping up their security by arming guards with AR-15s, installing facial recognition cameras, and tracking students with chip technology.

The Texas City Independent School District is heightening their security measures to become the safest school system in the country.

The district decided to take drastic action last year following the nearby Santa Fe High School shooting where a 17-year-old gunman killed 10 people.

The district hired former Secret Service agent Mike Matranga who introduced cutting edge technology to the school including radio frequency identification cards that tracks students and staff on school grounds and a smartphone app to report active shooters.

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Texas City Independent School District hired former Secret Service agent Mike Matranga to improve their safety and security measures





He also armed guards with AR-15 rifles and lined the school's glass doors with intrusion filming to make them impact resistant.

Every deputy in each school receives the gun, which is stored in a code-locked safe in the new security and safety plans.

'These are the weapons we purchased for our deputies. I’m a firm believer that we fight firepower with superior firepower,' Matranga said to Fox.

Matranga, who worked for the Secret Service for 12 years, says the best thing a school can do to be safe is to have deputies on campus.

'What we’re trying to do is buy time, and by buying time and by having a deputy on campus or multiple deputies on campus, that time allows our deputies to respond and do their job,' said on his new measures.

But he says nothing is stronger than having eyes and ears constantly on patrol on school grounds. He believes teachers are the best defense for any school.

In May, Texas City voters approved a $6.5million bond to beef up safety and security measures in schools.


Matranga has also given each deputy in every school an AR-15 style rifle, which is stored in a safe locked with a code, in the new security plans

'We’re not playing around. This isn’t some kind of little game to us. We put a lot of time, money, and effort into this,' Rodney Cavness, superintendent of schools for the Texas City Independent School District, said.

'I think we’re living in a sick society, and there are some very deeply troubled people out there that want to do harm to kids and to campuses and to teachers, and we’re not going to let that happen,' he added.

Parents in the community are supportive of the safety crackdown.

'I would vote for anything in favor of protecting my children,' parent Justin Graves said. He has a child at Heights Elementary School in the district.

'I’m in support of the security measures they implemented. It gives me a sense of security,' mother Trisha Jones added.

In an emergency, how long would it take to access them?

I'd say they need a couple of guys up in the catwalks with them during class changes.  Any time you have mass movement inside the institution you have the potential for trouble.

That is in my neck of the woods. I approve wholeheartedly.

Faster than it would take the police to respond.

Shit they ain't playing around

They are the police, non sworn won't have access.

None of that shit will make a difference.
But they Did Something and that's all that counts.  

Make some one pick a softer target

THIS.

And it's not like they don't already have handguns.

I think its great.

Good

"High school would be a challenge. What's the elementary or middle school look like?"

Beyond that, unless they're frisking everyone, every time they enter the building for any reason, examining any incoming materials, deliveries, etc.....

They could stop a shooter quicker with all that stuff. But it does little if anything to prevent a lot of kids being hurt.

Needs more crows nest, like Jails and Prisons have.

yes it will, that school wont have a active shooter, if they do they will likely just get deaded.

its just not about guns, controlled entry and movement coupled with a overwhelming response is how you contain attackers.

Im sure you know more. I bet you worked for the SS didn't you?

You want a fool proof way to prevent kids from being hurt? You're living on the wrong planet.

Good on TX for the preventive measures.

and what is your background? Do you know all the details of their measures at said school?

Good to see. Hope other districts take notice.

Is the shooter in between the deputy and the rifle?

That's what your handgun is for. To get to your rifle

It’s a step in the right direction. Some of y’all are letting perfect be the enemy of good.

You cannot say that definitively. Deterrence helps but it is cannot stop everything, but good for them for taking actions instead of just talking the talk.

How's the joke go?  "I don't have to run faster than the bear, I just have to run faster than you"

They are doing a good job.  You can bet they are not telling you all of their security measures.

1.  With the technology they are employing they almost certainly have sensors that will detect a discharged weapon and with that the lock down would be automatic at the same time triggering the response.

3.  With  RFID tracking they know where people are for the most part.

4.  Texas also has what are known as School Marshals who are armed; but concealed carry.  These could be a teacher,  administrator, or the maintenance guy.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t have these too.

5.  Having a rapid response force to contain and engage the threat is critical. If you go back and look at the school attacks they go on quite a while as the police responded and asses the situation.

Rapid response is the key element; recently there was a school shooting the Officers who arrive engaged the suspect within minutes of the first shot being fired which lead to only the bad guy going down.

Personally, I want the bad guys to know if they attack a school someone is going to kill them with in a couple of minutes. All and all I would give them an A+.

Has someone got the clone rifle specs yet?

First part of sentence does not compute with second half.

wait..using evil assault rifles in the hands of good guys, in position to protect against the very same rifles in the hands of bad guys...
liberal heads & "moms against everything" set to explode in 5, 4, 3, 2....

Won't matter unless you find out what tie he's wearing.

Bingo, rule of thumb is you are going to fight with what you’ve got on you.

Really? We bitch when the only reposnse to a school or mass shooting is "more gun control!", but when someone takes positive steps to deal with the problem you blow it off?

This district's plan sure sounds better than that s**tshow in Florida.

Waiting to hear your solution.

So it's best to let the shooter kill all the kids he wants because armed men won't be able to stop him before he hurts anyone?

It’s feel good money....no different than the left and their feel good legislation. If a shooting occurs there they may get lucky. If the resource officer will cower in a corner like during the Parkland shooting and it won’t make a bit of difference. There is no 100% sure way to stop these massacres. They’re like suicide bombings...modified suicide and nothing more. If the actor is willing to give their life for the “cause” then there will always be bloodshed.

I’m not sure if the title was a bit of click bait using the words guard, school and AR15 in the same sentence.  From what I read they have deputy sheriffs patrolling the schools.  No big deal having long guns as they are sworn officers, but they used the word ‘guard’ as people perceive security guards as lowly paid and untrained.  Just my two cents...

This business of stuffing the kids into a beehive in the corner of a classroom so one bullet can go through several of them has got to stop.

Clearly this foolish practice was invented by some 'highly educated' school administrator who has no idea how shit works when shit's gone bad.

So California schools have had a need for sheriffs with AR-15s for twenty years? Why is that?

This.  It seems like a good idea at first, but they'll wait until they go on a field trip or some after school activity.

Do you want your kids conditioned to living inside heavily guarded institutions like a police state?

This is how you get a police state in a generation or so.  Future adults won't feel safe outside of an environment like that.  Being out in public with non-police that might be carrying guns?  Literally horrifying.

This.

We don't have children hide in the corner in a fire. They are taught to escape and rally outside.

But what do we do for gun fire? We hide and give gunmen easy targets.

I’m not knocking every SRO, but the ones I know/have known were ROD. There wasn’t room at the courthouse or hq. they liked to look at the high school ass. They are akin to the shitty lawyer in a shitty strip mall in a shitty part of town.

Who wants to be LE and walk around a school all day?

Funky winkerbean with a belt fed ?

Great idea. Rifles should be slung however.

Multiple deputies on site... send at least one to face the threat immediately while the rest unlimber the artillery.

It really will not matter. THIS is the school district that shooters will avoid.

This is more than likely right.

A shooter is a pussy. He/she Doesn't want to go into a place where there are people known to have guns and can easily fight back. A shooter would rather go to a place no one has guns.

Good for that school district.

Will they fit under the stairwell with that ?