TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Students in the Twin Falls School District will be protected by private security guards next year. On Wednesday evening, the Twin Falls School Board approved expanding the use of armed security within their school buildings.
The district still has to sign a contract with whomever is going to provide the security, but the plan to do so is moving forward following Wednesday's board meeting.
Currently, Twin Falls elementary schools share school resource officers (SROs) with high schools and middle schools, their focus primarily being the latter. Elementary schools get checks from SROs from time to time and visit the campuses upon administration request.
This proposal will put armed security guards in each of the nine elementary schools in the district.
The decision was made in the wake of multiple mass shootings around the United States, including in Uvalde, Texas, where an elementary school shooting killed 19 students and two teachers.
The school board was presented with a proposal earlier in July for the district administration to expand armed security within their school buildings.
In a July 11 interview, Twin Falls School District Director of Operations, Ryan Bowman, told KTVB the move would increase the district's safety.
"It's to make sure that all of our schools are covered all of the time with somebody who is trained in the skills to be able to do something if a situation may occur," Bowman said. "Hopefully, we never see that around here, but it's one of those things that we have to be prepared for."
The school district's current six SROs come from the Twin Falls Police Department, but Bowman said they're going to look in a different direction when it comes to new armed security in schools.
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