Kilgore ISD votes in favor of guardian program

KILGORE — Kilgore ISD will join the list of East Texas schools that will implement the state’s guardian program for this new year. The district’s superintendent, Dr. Andy Baker said they are ready to beef up its campus safety measures. According to our news partner KETK, Baker said all school districts are concerned about what happened in Uvalde. He said with the guardian plan, it allows schools to reevaluate how safe their campuses are and how they can be improved. “This community has given us charge of their kiddos for many, many years and they trusted us to educate them and to keep them safe, and this is just one more step that we believe is necessary at this point in time to continue that trust and to keep them all safe,” said Baker. The program’s purpose is to have a limited number of qualified and trained district employees who are armed with concealed guns on campus during school hours. Kilgore ISD is also adding more school security officers. Other schools participating in the guardian program include Pine Tree, Hallsville and Tyler ISD.