BRENHAM SCHOOL BOARD VOTES TO MODIFY SRO CONTRACT WITH CITY
The Brenham School Board voted to modify the current contract for school resource officers (SROs) with the City of Brenham at their meeting Tuesday at noon. Superintendent Tylor Chaplin presented the school board with 4 options; 1. Start a BISD Police Department 2. Modify the current SRO program with the City of Brenham 3. Start a Marshall program 4. Start a Guardian program. This is in response to HB3, which requires each campus to have an armed and trained person. The Marshall program has a much higher level of training than the Guardian program and also comes with qualified immunity for it’s participants. Kyle Hafner, backed by several other trustees, objected to Chaplin’s proposal saying it didn’t give enough info on the Guardian program. They wanted to limit the contract with the City to 1, 2 or at a maximum of 3 years and get some more information on the Guardian program. The school board felt they were up against a time constraint, with school starting only a few weeks away. Dr. Chaplin agreed with Hafner’s terms, and changed the wording of the proposal.
Several local people spoke before the meeting. John Deans spoke about the Guardian program, saying there is plenty of training available. Missy Robinson, spoke in favor of the current SRO program, saying she is worried about a teacher leaving a classroom to pursue a gunman. Billy Sutherland spoke saying the school district needs to look at all the options. The next regularly scheduled school board meeting is less than a week away, Monday, July 17th at 6:00 PM at the High School.