In Wake of Uvalde Shooting, Ohio Moves to Arm Teachers
Ohio teachers are pushing back against a new law that makes it easier for them to bring firearms into the classroom.
“Educators are being told we are not trusted to decide what to teach in the classroom, a job we study for and are lichened to do,” argues Shari Obrenski, President of the Teachers Union in Cleveland, OH. “But we are trusted to have loaded guns around children with far less training than is required to drive a car.”
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) signed the bill Monday, less than a month after a disturbed 18-year old shot 19 students and 2 teachers and wounded 17 others at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, TX after shooting and severely wounding his grandmother at home.
Educators in Ohio are already allowed to carry guns, but the new bill would ease training requirements and other restrictions – including dropping the number of training hours required from 700 to 24. Teachers interested in obtaining a permit would be required to complete a “curriculum, instruction, and training” that parallels the state’s requirements for private security guards.
The bill gives local school boards the authority on whether to allow its staff to be armed and individual boards could require additional training hours.
“This is a local choice, not mandated by the legislature nor by the government,” clarified DeWine, who noted that the presence of armed teachers at Robb Elementary could have made a huge difference.
Law enforcement officials who responded to the incident in Uvalde have been criticized for waiting outside the school for nearly 80 minutes before entering – despite having known that people inside were injured.
“That heartbreaking school shooting certainly increased the urgency to enact [the bill],” said DeWine.
A majority of teachers are uncomfortable with the idea of bringing firearms into the classroom despite the obvious need to increase protections for students.
Mike Weinman, Government Affairs Director for the Fraternal Order of Police, fears the bill doesn’t require enough training. “We go through hundreds of hours of training and a lot of that is on how not to use our weapons.”
Ohio lawmakers appropriated $117 million for schools to use for security enhancements in addition to passing the bill, which takes effect in mid-September.
“Schools will be required to have a security and vulnerability assessment conducted by law enforcement, former military, or security professionals that will help them determine their security needs,” explained DeWine.
Within the past two years, DeWine has signed a bill that removes a requirement that anyone under attack with deadly force attempt to retreat before responding with violence and a bill that eliminates some background check requirements for concealed carry permits.
Despite these efforts, however, guns are now the leading cause of death for youths living in Ohio and years 2020 and 2021 both set new records for the number of Ohio residents killed by firearms.
With Ohio added to the list, there are now 19 US states that allow educators with concealed carry licenses to bring firearms to school with permission from local school authorities.
Sources:
DeWine signs bill allowing for armed teachers: ‘This is a local choice’
Bad idea as I have written before. All Ohio did was make it easier for teachers to carry guns into school. Just wait till a bullet from a teacher gun kills a student. Teacher will be in jail. There is no law protecting teachers from an accidental shooting if they are protecting the class.
We have armed and trained people guarding our celebrities and stupid politicians. Why not our kids? I’m hoping that every state will arm the teachers. But only the ones who want to be armed. And Tom, your comment was seriously stupid. Does anyone bitch about cops being armed except leftist assholes? And constitutional carry should be the law in 100-% of America and our territories. Enough of this bullshit that tries to shame people for having guns. If someone doesn’t want a gun that’s fine. But don’t bitch about great ideas for protecting our children and other innocent people. Liberals have caused more deaths than anyone else.
There are several studies regarding arming school staff that show that having just 5-10% of the staff armed is sufficient to deter school shootings. What’s not stated here is making the schools a SINGLE ENTRY, multiple emergency exit, building requiring an administrator or Resource (aka: security [armed]) to premit entry. Train the VOLUNTEERS, who have passed background checks and have a consealed carry permit (not advocating staff carry consealed weapons) be trained and clearly identified by the local police is the proper measures to protect agains a school shooter and how to interact with the police once the ploice are on scene. I every room and in plain sight 2 safes: one for weapons (tasers, pepper spray, knife, shotgun [IMO 20 gauge – light , good enough pellet spread and lethal enough to stop or slow down the shooter]; the other holds the ammo so it requires 2 deliberagte steps to remove a gun and 2 nd to get tot the ammo [standard law in most states]. For protection against “someone going postal”, alarm the safes to the centeral office where a “kill switch” can be activated that prohibits anyone from opening both safes.
Train and arm the kids that are above 10 years old That would show the republicans that us democrats mean business
Damned right
Great ideas, I am sure the funding with be there to arm, harden, and train. But hardening the building and arming the teachers is only the first order defense. Schools need defensive perimeters including secure checkpoints like any military installation in a conflict region like the US.
Establishment of school perimeters are most important for blast containment as arms escalation moves beyond assault weapons.
External security barriers are mandatory in these perimeters for protection against growing Trumplicant terrorist activities and other whack jobs and enemies. Armed checkpoints, heat/motion sensors, barriers, concertina wire, even strategically located mines and anti-personal devices can help. Since vehicles may include WMD’s and other improvised devices, all need to be parked a safe distance from the building and teachers and students then shuttled in safe vehicles to the school.
Schools should not just rely on these physical barriers, they are great used for blast containment and other purposes; schools also need force protection barriers in case teams, like Columbine, attack. And anti-ram barriers since cars are often the weapon of choice, as easy to use as the gun, and known to be used frequently by mass murders.
Lastly, schools need to have barriers on all the infrastructure to secure the facilities. If hvac, cafeteria, bathrooms, and other infrastructure points of weakness are not hardened inside the perimeter, all the teacher guns won’t matter if AC, lunch, shitters go down.
Unfortunately, once all this is done, the whack jobs will just reorient to the malls, churches, the parks, and other public spots that are not hardened. We have many concealed carry’s out there, but so far, not many have stopped mass murders occurring outside the schools. Frankly, statistically, they never can.
The Buffalo shooter was hit by a good guy, the guard, who died. The shooter had plate armor.
The Vegas shooter killed 60, wounded 400, there were armed guards all over the place.
At the Pulse shooting with close to 50 dead, an armed guard took some shots and then got sued for not entering the building.
At the Santa Fe school killing of 10, there were two armed officers. One was wounded, but the carnage went on.
I can go on. There is very little success stories here, most of these gun fights were lost even IF they got the guy. And rarely is it a good guy with a gun; heck even the trained officers aren’t batting 500 ball.
But not to worry, there may be another way that lowers the need for hardening while totally eliminating the risk of mass killings at school. IMO, we should move quickly to harden the actual student body with full body armor, plated of course, only because that’s the legal choice in New York :>) (bunch of idiots). Perhaps we can even outfit these body armor suits with oxygen making covid transmission a thing of the past — win-win Or better yet, we can just move to 100% remote schooling and there will never be another school shooting again. Problem solved, mission accomplished. The only unintended circumstance is that these parents will now be totally responsible, 24×7, for their kids upbringing and mental health, two things that the pandemic has taught us American parents suck at. Oh, well, downstream problem to be solved and a crazy kid is better than a dead one.