Teachers have been responding in a big way to the Armed Teacher Training Program, says Jim Irvine with the Buckeye Firearms Foundation.
IRVINE: 鈥淭he latest numbers just in are 759, over 700 of them in the state of Ohio.鈥�
KASLER: 鈥淚s that number a surprise to you?鈥�
IRVINE: 鈥淚t is. I expected several hundred people to respond to this, but not the response that we have gotten.鈥�
The classes are still being developed, and there鈥檚 no timeline on when they鈥檇 be offered yet. But Irvine says the gun rights group decided to offer the three-day program to educators and school employees after the deadly shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut last month. And Irvine says it鈥檚 time districts reexamined 鈥済un-free zone鈥� policies, because he says they leave teachers, administrators, school personnel and students vulnerable.
IRVINE: 鈥淗aving a policy that helps someone achieve a high body count is a bad idea. It鈥檚 a failed policy, and we need to get rid of that and put in place policies that actually work to lower our body count.鈥�
Though hundreds have signed up for the training, there are more than 150,000 educators, school officials and other personnel in the state of Ohio. And that training wouldn鈥檛 mean a teacher could carry a weapon into a school unless the district specifically authorized it. Damon Asbury with the Ohio School Boards Association says it鈥檚 too early to tell whether districts want to go that way.
ASBURY: 鈥淭he conversation I鈥檝e heard by and large is that just arming teachers may not be the most effective or even safest way to go about providing security. There鈥檚 lots of pros and cons, I鈥檓 sure, but we鈥檝e had school shootings in settings where there have been armed guards.鈥�
But Patricia Frost-Brooks with the state鈥檚 largest teachers鈥� union, the Ohio Education Association, says teachers shouldn鈥檛 be forced into what she calls a dual role.
FROST-BROOKS: 鈥淲e aren鈥檛 going to be there to be armed and carry a weapon and then be the academic leaders and do the teaching and preparing students for this 21st century skills.鈥�
The attorney general has said he supports having someone with experience and training posted in a school with access to a gun. But for now, Mike DeWine is talking up training his office is offering starting next week to school employees on how to prepare for, to stop, and to deal with a school shooting situation.
DEWINE: 鈥淚 think it really comes back to what that local school wants to do and I think the courses that we鈥檙e offering, frankly, are going to help that school better understand the nature of the threat. I think once they get that information, they鈥檙e going to be in a better position to make, as a community, a decision about whether they want someone actually in that school who has a gun who has been trained.鈥�
Meanwhile, the attorney general says there are still about 50 schools out of around 5,000 that have not provided his office with floor plans for their buildings and required emergency safety plans. The AG鈥檚 office contacted those which hadn鈥檛 complied after last year鈥檚 shooting in Chardon, and then again after last month鈥檚 tragedy in Connecticut.
