Boone County school districts in Lead Hill and Valley Springs are exploring the idea of allowing staff members to train as reserve sheriff’s deputies so they can carry guns on their campuses.
Lead Hill has no police officer on campus, and the district of 360 students is about 26 miles from the sheriff’s office in Harrison.
If teachers become reserve sheriff’s deputies, they must be willing to leave the children in their classrooms alone to confront a shooter should such a threat happen, Lead Hill SuperintendentJohn Davidson said. He’s unsure about that issue.
“We’re very interested in protecting our kids,” Davidson said. “It’s how do we go about that.”
Boone County Sheriff Mike Moore developed a program to assist districts outside Harrison with improving security of their campuses after a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six staff members in December at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
The program includes conducting security assessments of campuses, training teachers in identifying troubled pupils and suspiciousvisitors, and designating some school staff members as reserve sheriff’s deputies. The reserve deputies could respond to an active shooter, especially in districts outside Harrison where it could take 20 minutes or longer for the sheriff’s office to respond.
Districts can choose any component of the program, Moore said.
“With anything, you’ve got mixed emotions,” Moore said. “You hate to think your teachers or any school staff would have to arm themselves; however, we’ve seen it’s not always going to happen ‘somewhere else.’ If having an armed staff member somewhere could lessen the damage or end a situation quicker, that’s going to save lives.”
Faulkner County Sheriff Andy Shock also has made presentations to districts in his county to deputize school administrators.
ARMING STAFF
In the past, some school districts, including Lake Hamilton, have used the state’s security-guard laws to arm their staffs. After Clarksville School District garnered national attention for plans to use the security-guard law to arm about 20 staff members, including teachers, the attorney general’s office issued an opinion saying the law does not allow school districts to be classified as private businesses that can use teachers as armed guards.
A state licensing board has allowed districts licensed as private businesses to continue for two more years, but the board will not grant any new licenses.
Valley Springs School District, with 938 students, has one resource police officer for its kindergarten through 12thgrade campus, but Superintendent Charles Trammell would like to have a trained person with a concealed firearm in each of the three buildings on the campus.
“These people are going to be in the buildings,” he said. “If they hear the ‘pop, pop, pop,’ they know what’s going on and take action immediately.”
Reserve deputies are volunteer certified officers and work under the supervision of other sheriff ’s deputies, Moore said. The reserve deputies generally have a high school diploma and complete a 100-hour training course. They also undergo criminal background checks and psychological evaluations.
For a reserve deputy to work on a school campus, Moore would require an additional 24 hours in “active shooter” training and 16 hours in weapon retention. The reserve deputies for schools would have to be approved for duty by the superintendentand sheriff.
Omaha School District Superintendent Jerry Parrett, who oversees a district of 420 students, was interested in Moore’s program until the attorney general’s opinion.
Bergman School District, with about 1,100 students, has a resource police officer, and some staff members have expressed interest in becoming reserve deputies, but some community members are apprehensive about having more people with weapons at school, Superintendent Joe Couch said.
If staff members were armed, they could become targets, Couch said. Although staff members would be trained, the possibility exists for a staff member to neglect properly securing a firearm, he said.
MOVING FORWARD
The Lead Hill School Board began discussing deputizing school employees at a board meeting about a week ago, and a formal proposal will go to the board Oct. 21, Davidson said. Davidson and the board are gauging community interest.
A handful of staff members have volunteered to train to be reserve deputies for the 2014-15 school year, Davidson said.
“I’m a little bit reluctant to say this is the best thing for us right now,” Davidson said. “Certainly we are very interested in making sure our students are secure.”
He knows that some gunmen are bent on destruction and will not negotiate, but school staff could reason with others, he said. Davidson said he wouldn’t want a staff member’s gun to escalate a situation.
Lead Hill School Board President Troy Burleson is interested in the reserve program because of the long distance between the school and the sheriff’s office.
“I think if it’s the right person, it’s a fantastic thing,” he said. “We put all the kids and the teachers in a little box and don’t let them defend themselves. It’s concerning to staff and parents if someone came on our campus, there would be no one to stop it or defend themselves.”
In Valley Springs, Trammell said he and the School Board have had informal discussions through the spring and summer and the board has been supportive. About five staff members are interested in the reserve deputy program.
The next step is for the staff members who are interested to write a letter expressing their interest and then to determine the top candidates to proceed with a psychological evaluation, background check and training, Trammell said.
“We just feel like not doing anything and not having any protection could probably be more detrimental,” Moore said.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 09/24/2013