CAMDEN — Preble Shawnee Local Schools Board of Education has decided to allow teachers to carry concealed weapons after surveying staff and receiving training.
The board approved a resolution “authorizing individual staff members to have access to and possess a deadly weapon or ordnance in a school safety zone” at its Tuesday, May 14, meeting.
The resolution notes, “Preble Shawnee Local Schools Board of Education (“Board”) is committed to maintaining a safe environment in the District’s schools and believes that preparing and equipping our staff to defend and protect district students is essential to creating and preserving a proper learning environment; and whereas Ohio Revised Code 2923.122 authorizes the board to grant authorization to certain individuals to convey or otherwise possess a deadly weapon or dangerous ordnance into a school safety zone, provided those individuals are appropriately trained and the board notifies the public that it has authorized one or more persons to go armed within a school operated by the board by whatever means the affected school regularly communicates with the public.”
The resolution goes on to recognize the ORC outlines curriculum, instruction, and training needed for certain individuals to convey and possess firearms on school property and authorizes the board to adopt alternate curriculum, instruction, and training, provided it includes all of the necessary topics and is approved by the Ohio School Safety Center.
“It wasn’t taken lightly,” BOE President Julie Singleton said of the decision. “I think we all had reservations at first. If you look at it from a state perspective, there’s certainly school districts that have implemented it, but we still wanted to be very conservative in our thoughts of implementing it. So we did surveys within the school district because we wanted our staff to feel comfortable with it, first and foremost, and it came back about 70-30 in favor of it.
“So between that and the information that we got from other school districts that have implemented it, like Madison, we just decided it’d be good to move forward with it for the safety of the students,” Singleton said. “We certainly understand that there’s going to be thoughts both ways, but we thought it would be best in that manner. The thing that really sold me is the training that’s involved, like, it’s an overwhelming amount of training, which is good.”
The staff who will be carrying will remain anonymous. “Nobody can know who it is,” Singleton explained. “So that way, somebody couldn’t come in and target that person. So I think that also helped me and I think the board.”
A lot of teachers have reached out, interested in carrying, according to Singleton.
Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on X @emowenjr.
