The vast majority of schools in Ohio and locally, however, continue to use the traditional strategy of partnerships with local law enforcement to provide armed school resource officers (SROs) who are often police officers or sheriff deputies.Ĭomplicating the recent, heightened public discussions of school security is the reluctance of school – and local police officials – to conduct any public, detailed discussions of building security so as not to reveal school security vulnerabilities to potential attackers. Nearby Franklin Schools saw its board discuss plans to add a police officer to its high school.Ĭurrent Ohio law – unless altered by local school boards – limits school personnel to keeping their handguns locked in their cars while on school property.Ī small number of Ohio’s 608 public school systems have seen their boards pass resolutions to expand those CCW rights to allow for certified school personnel to carry a holstered handgun or have access to a gun in their school buildings. “The Springboro Schools’ administrative staff is looking to proactively take steps at countering potential threats, in order to ensure improved security measures across our district,” the memo read. These include additional police presence, social media monitoring and the elimination of lunchroom visitors. 27 memo to Springboro parents about changes made because of the Parkland school shooting. Warren County’s Springboro schools have already acted. You can see it when you pull up in the parking lot,” she said. She said the current staff of armed SROs and city police officers’ presence are sufficient. “I am not for Sheriff Jones arming our teachers and personnel,” Greene told the board. We probably have teachers in our schools that would be willing to do that.”īut Hamilton resident Lucinda Greene disagreed. “I’m an advocate for paid, armed personnel in our (school) buildings … I am an advocate of having teachers that would be willing to assume some of those roles to do that as well. “I saw at the recent shooting in Florida where armed folks in the school could have had an impact and lessened the devastation that occurred there,” Graham said. The Lakota board took no action but said all new security options are now being considered.Īt the Hamilton Board of Education meeting last week, city resident Jim Graham directly challenged board members, telling them he backed Jones’ proposal, saying “I hold you responsible for the safety of my grandchildren at this point.” Explore STORY & VIDEO: Hamilton residents make pro, con cases about armed teachers It’s not something that needs to be put in the public eye like this … I wish the board would make a statement that guns don’t have a place in Lakota Schools.” “I think he (Jones) is doing this for publicity. “You don’t stop a forest fire by adding more fuel to it,” Liberty Township resident Aimee Sensing said at the meeting, referencing the idea of injecting more firearms - and possible dangers - into schools aside from those already being carried by school resource officers (SROs). He was joined by others backing the idea, but some residents disagreed. “Since our schools are gun free zones to law abiding citizens, violent criminals are mass murdering our teachers and students around the country.” “This must happen and this must happen quickly,” York said. Explore STORY & VIDEO: Lakota board hears from residents about armed teachers Lakota school resident Jeremiah York stepped up the microphone at last week’s meeting of the Lakota school board and cited Jones’ new CCW program for teachers as one of the reasons the board should allow qualified teachers to be armed. “If the school boards want to do that, then we do the extra training,” he said.īoard meetings turn into lobbying efforts Jones continues to lobby the county’s school officials, saying he has made it easier and cheaper for them. ![]() We cannot stop the shootings,” said Jones, but he added, “you also got to make the schools more of a hard target.” “We have no choice in our society right now. “I will supply the (training) personnel and hopefully they (teachers) will know more about guns and save someone’s life,” Jones told this news outlet. More than 300 teachers and school staffers have signed up for his recent, highly publicized offer of free CCW training, he said. He used social media to advertise his teacher CCW classes, and his recent messages on Twitter included urging residents to pressure their local school boards for armed teachers. during which a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six adult school staffers, his approach this time is more aggressive. ![]() ![]() Unlike Jones’ previous public lobbying of schools for more armed personnel in 2013, done in the weeks following the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.
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