ROSWELL, N.M. – On Monday, school board members for the Roswell Independent School District talked about school security, and a new policy for school security personnel to be armed, specifically the security liaison. 

The policy would allow the security liaison to be armed and continue to do his job while protecting himself. 

“He has actively been looking for people that have been armed. He has helped defuse situations that could have gotten out of hand extremely quick. I need to have the ability to protect Mr. Harrell as he has put in some pretty nefarious situations. As my security liaison, he has been first to the scene of multiple events,” said Brian Luck, the RISD, Superintendent. 

KOB 4 spoke with parents who told us they are not opposed to the idea and encourage it. 

LJ Harrel, the liaison for RISD says, being armed will not replace the school resource officers but will act as a last resort to protect until law enforcement officers can get to where he is. 

“I literally am alerted to any alert within the district within seconds, and the majority of the time I am the first one on scene. As police officers arrive, they usually start from the outer perimeter and start working their way in, so many occasions and principals can attest to it. It’s just me and them in the building at that time,” said Harrell. 

Harrell says he is a master firearms instructor for the state and has been a firearms director for 25 years. 

This was just the first reading of the policy and still has to be voted on.