by Andrew Welsh-Huggins ASSOCIATED Press, and staff
COLUMBUS – The heads of Ohio’s largest teachers’ unions are urging Gov. Mike DeWine to veto legislation that would allow school districts to arm employees but the Republican governor says he’s looking forward to signing it.
School districts could begin arming employees as soon as this fall under legislation approved by Republican lawmakers Wednesday, a little over a week after a deadly school shooting in Texas, after being fast-tracked by Republican lawmakers.
“Last week I called on the General Assembly to pass a bill that would allow local school districts, if they so choose, to designate armed staff for school security and safety…I thank the General Assembly for passing this bill to protect Ohio children and teachers,” DeWine said in a statement issued by his office following the vote in the Statehouse.
The bill would require up to 24 hours of initial training, and up to eight hours of requalification training annually.
“Last week I called on the General Assembly to pass a bill that would allow local school districts, if they so choose, to designate armed staff for school security and safety. My office worked with the General Assembly to remove hundreds of hours of curriculum irrelevant to school safety and to ensure training requirements were specific to a school environment and contained significant scenario-based training. House Bill 99 accomplishes these goals, and I thank the General Assembly for passing this bill to protect Ohio children and teachers. I look forward to signing this important legislation.” -Gov. Mike DeWine
The bill was sent to DeWine’s desk after the House agreed to changes made in the Senate.
The heads of the Ohio Education Association and the Ohio Federation of Teachers, who had opposed the legislation, said in a joint statement that the bill would make schools more dangerous and called on DeWine to veto it.
“The safety of Ohio’s students and educators is our utmost priority, but we know putting more guns into school buildings in the hands of people who have woefully inadequate training—regardless of their intentions—is dangerous and irresponsible. Teachers and other school employees should not be asked to serve dual roles as educators and school safety personnel armed with weapons, but, if they are, rigorous training standards, as set under current Ohio law, are essential. House Bill 99 guts those requirements, capping the state training requirements at 24 hours and putting educators in the impossible position of making split-second life-and-death decisions without sufficient training. This could undoubtedly lead to more tragedies in our schools.” -Scott DiMauro, Ohio Education Association, and Melissa Cropper, Ohio Federation of Teachers
The measure aims to undo the effect of a 2021 state Supreme Court ruling that said under current law armed school workers would need hundreds of hours of training.
Democrats said the proposal, which is optional for schools, sends the wrong message a week after the massacre of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Republicans say the measure could prevent such shootings.
The measure is also opposed by the major law enforcement groups and gun control advocates but is supported by a handful of police departments and school districts.