Ohio School District to Allow Teachers and Staff to be Armed

(TotalConservative.com) – A school district in Ohio will now allow teachers and staff to be armed on the job due to concerns about response times by law enforcement to active shooters.

According to the Marion Star in Marion County, Ohio, the River Valley Local School District will implement a new policy to permit approved teachers and staff to carry weapons while at a work. They are the 23rd school district in the state of Ohio to implement such a policy.

In a statement by Superintendent Adam Wickman, he said that “our schools will no longer be soft targets and unprotected.” Wickman pointed out that the majority of “active-shooter events” happen in designated ‘gun-free zones’ or areas “with minimal safety measures in place” and that the district wants “to ensure our schools will not be soft targets.”

Wickman also noted that “response times can often be minutes away in the event of an active shooter” in rural communities, where there is substantially fewer police than in larger towns or big cities. He said that arming staff members in school buildings “can potentially save lives by providing a more immediate response to the threat.” Wickman then cited the recent shootings in Nashville, Uvalde, and Parkland as demonstrating that quicker response times make it more likely to save lives.

This strategy of arming school staff was recently highlighted in an argument caught on camera between Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman outside the House chamber.

Bowman was shouting at Republicans exiting the chamber, calling them “cowards” for not supporting more gun-control legislation when Massie approached him and tried to explain that the data shows there is a solution to school shootings. “You know, there’s never been a school shooting in a school that allows teachers to carry,” Massie told Bowman who kept shouting at him. Bowman responded that “more guns lead to more death” to which Massie told him to “look at the data.”

Bowman wouldn’t listen, so Massie proceeded to explain to someone nearby recording the incident that no school where teachers were allowed to be armed had ever suffered a mass shooting event.

Armed staff in the Ohio school district will be required to undergo more extensive training than what is normally recommended by the state, according to Wickman.

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