INGRAM, Texas — The signs outside every campus in the Ingram ISD are bold and direct.
They read:
“ATTENTION. Please be aware that staff members at Ingram ISD are armed and may use whatever force is necessary to protect our students.”
The signs were installed in time for the start of the school year, after some members of the district staff invested their summer in specialty training, including law, crisis intervention and first aid.
“We just want to keep kids safe," Ingram ISD Superintendent Dr. Bobby Templeton said. "When a parent drops their babies off at our front door, we want them to know that they can pick them up at the front door in the exact same condition that they dropped them off in.”
Templeton said after watching other school tragedies, many in his small Hill Country community wanted to make sure they were doing everything possible to ensure campus security.
Now, almost 1,100 students have an added layer of protection.
"There are no visible weapons. There are no visible guns. Everything is concealed. To the naked eye or the uniformed eye you would never notice anything different," Templeton said. The only visible change, he said, are signs at the entrances to each campus.
Senior student Chris Slaughter said he is grateful for the change. "I don't think anyone is going to try and pull anything," he said.
"The feeling of knowing that if something crazy happens, there's somebody there to protect you, that can help you out. It's just awesome. There's no other feeling like that," Slaughter said.
The superintendent said the community has embraced the concept. “We put pictures of our sign on Facebook. There were 400 and some odd comments. Four were negative. So it's been overwhelmingly positive," Templeton said.
"All the people that I've talked to are like, 'it's awesome.' We think everyone, everywhere should do it," Slaughter said.
“It does break my heart to think that schools and school leaders are put in a position to actually arm up to go to work,” Templeton said, adding, "Knock on wood, it'll never have to work."