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Teige Parkinson has been tasked with the safety and security of the students and faculty at DeQueen Elementary.

As a recently hired school marshal, Parkinson comes to the job with 11 years experience at Texas Youth Commission.

Parkinson is one of three recently hired school marshals for Port Arthur Independent School District. Hayward DeRouen will serve at Washington Elementary and Jonathan Strickland will serve at Lakeview elementary School.

In efforts to increase security measures, the State of Texas mandated an armed security officer in every school as a response to the tragic Uvalde school shooting (and others), Adrienne Lott, PAISD director of communications, said.

The three new hires have completed their training and started their new assignments earlier this week.

Parkinson said his duty at the campus is to detect and eliminate threats. This includes making sure there are no areas of breach, making sure all doors are locked and closed and that no one is propping doors open.

“The goal is to make sure that our school is safe and secure and that our kids, as well as our staff are safe coming to work and going home,” Parkinson said. “I have kids myself. You drop your kids off in the morning and want your kids to come back the same way you sent them. That’s my goal, the safety and security of the elementary school and the kids.”

PAISD Police Chief Howard Sylve III said there is an option in the school marshal program to have the marshal in uniform or plain clothes.

The district opted for uniform, he said. The idea is for the marshal to be visible and hopefully a deterrent.

“I think the other thing that we looked at, as far as with a school marshal being in the uniform, opposed to being plain clothes, in plain clothes the public wouldn’t know their identity,” Sylve siad. “But one of the things that we also looked at was if we had a situation where there was active shooter and law enforcement came on our campus to assist we didn’t want to put our school marshals in a cross that law enforcement didn’t know who they were.”

 

The process

Parkinson didn’t get to the job of school marshal quickly or easily.

Sylve said the process for applicants is the same as with a police officer. There’s the first initial interview, then a rigid background check through the National Crime Information Center or NCIC and Texas Crime Information Center, or TCIC.

There are checks to see if an applicant has been arrested, if they have felonies or warrants; even some class B misdemeanors and felonies will eliminate someone.

The process moves to another level just as it would with police officers, he said. In addition there is a psychological check as well.

Applicants then go to the firing range to see their skill level and if they pass al of this they are given a conditional job offer pending an 80-hour school marshal course which is held through Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.

Syvle said the plan is to have one school marshal for every elementary school campus and at the Wheatley School of Early Childhood Programs.

There are also plans to add more marshals and officers to the department.

 

Background

House Bill 3 became effective Sept. 1, 2023 requiring school boards to determine the number of armed security officers for each district campus to ensure at least one armed security officer is present during the regular school hours at each campus.

This bill comes in reaction to the deadly Uvalde school shooting

According to TCOLE, the school marshal course covers topics such as physical security, improving the security of the campus, use of force, active shooter response and weapon proficiency.

“The sole purpose of the school marshal is to prevent the act of murder or serious bodily injury on school premises. A school marshal may only act as defined by the written regulations adopted by the school board or governing body,” according to TCOLE.

 

The Chief

Sylve said he would rather be prepared than not prepared at all.

“And so that’s the mindset,” he said. “I always tell people, the people that work for me, I want you to train as though it’s gonna happen. So if it does, you prepare for it than not be trained and not be ready for it.”