'It's a hot topic': Marion County districts discuss whether to let teachers carry guns

As the country is working to heal and move forward from the tragic shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Marion County’s schools are working to reevaluate district safety and determine their stance on arming teachers.

These conversations began across the state after Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 99 into Ohio law June 13 authorizing teachers, principals and other staff to carry firearms into classrooms this fall after 24 hours of training.

While 24 hours is the minimum time for training in order to arm staff, the Ohio law allows for individual district boards to determine their individual policies on guidelines for training and whether they will arm their staff at all.

Gun control advocates have argued they don't believe arming Ohio's teachers will decrease the number of school shootings like in Uvalde, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, while DeWine has been called upon by members of the public to "do something" about mass shootings since nine were killed in a Dayton bar in 2019.

While Columbus City Schools immediately announced its decision to continue opposing the arming of teachers, in Marion County districts have begun their own discussions at a board level to determine where they stand.

Letting teachers carry guns: What school districts in Marion County plan to do

According to Ridgedale's Board President Ryan Cook, the board has had informal conversations about the topic, but it wants to be able to confer with new Superintendent Dr. Erika Bower after she begins this academic year, desiring all parties to be comfortable with the decision.

"I think any board that's facing this issue knows that it's a hot topic nationally and it's clearly polarized; anything anymore is polarized," he said.

Cook also noted he thinks the portion of House Bill 99 that requires districts to publicly announce to parents and teachers if they plan to arm their staff is a positive thing as he believes they have a right to know.

As the bill is to officially take effect Sept. 12, and Cook said the district will come to an official conclusion in the fall, but he could see the district being in support of arming its staff.

"We've had discussions on it. There has been no formal vote at this point. In fact nothing can happen until later this fall," Cook said.

"I think I'm not stepping too far out of line to say our board would be supportive of that, but again no formal decisions have been made."

Meanwhile, at Elgin, Superintendent Lane Warner added a topic regarding House Bill 99 and arming staff to the June 27 board meeting, just two weeks after DeWine signed it into law.

The next day, he said the four of five board members in attendance agreed to not move forward with arming teachers, explaining being a one building K-12 district allowed the district administration and board to feel safe with the school resource officer from the Marion County Sheriff's Office.

Similarly, at Pleasant, the district has had an ongoing conversation about whether or not to arm staff but will continue to focus on leaning into the school's resource officer and other preexisting safety measures at this time, according to Board President Vicki Kimmel.

"We are not choosing at this point and time to arm our teachers," she said.

River Valley Superintendent did not say whether the district's board has begun conversations regarding arming teachers, but he did note the River Valley safety plan is updated annually, and the district encourages its community to contact law enforcement if there is an imminent safety concern.

For each of these county schools, Captain Ryan Zempter has overseen the school resource officer program through the sheriff's office since 2018. He said the program was formed after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida.

He said if districts were to adopt the arming of teachers and staff, his team would likely not lead training, but teamwork and communication would have to be established and added to each district's safety plan.

“I don’t think we would facilitate the training at this time due to the liability, because these teachers and school employees, they’re educators by trade and they haven’t gone through police academy and things of that nature where they might not be as proficient with firearms as we expect our deputies to be,” Zempter said.

"It would certainly be something where it would be incorporated into the school safety plan, and our school resource officers would be aware of that plan and they would have discussions and expectations."

Outside of the county schools, Marion City Schools has not had an official discussion on arming staff, according to Board President Kelly Mackay.

Interim Marion City Schools Superintendent Steve Mazzi said the board is more interested in reviewing the district's safety plan and safety audit to focus on any changes that need to be made.

He said he plans to meet with the district's school resource officer, Officer Dave Dunaway, in the coming week to review policies.

Story by: Sophia Veneziano (740) 564 - 5243 sveneziano@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Marion County schools discuss arming teachers under new Ohio law