Ohio was one of the first states in the nation to lean in to arming school staff as a defense against active shooters, and thanks to the efforts of Buckeye Firearms Association and its FASTER (Faculty/Administrator Safety Training & Emergency Response) training, thousands of educators, administators, and support staff are now able to defend their students, co-workers, and themselves with lethal force if necessary.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, the number of schools with armed school staff is growing by leaps and bounds. In fact, it's more than doubled in the past two years.
Ninety-seven districts and individual schools are arming school personnel this year, up from 67 last year, according to the latest roster released by the Ohio Department of Public Safety. In August 2023, there were 46 school districts that decided to arm personnel.
... Districts in smaller, rural counties are more likely to arm their personnel than the larger, urban districts. That may reflect a concern about longer police response times in far flung areas.
For example, seven districts, one private school and a career tech center in Belmont County opted to arm personnel. One private school in each of Summit and Hamilton counties and no districts in Franklin County opted to arm personnel.
Even if well-populated areas like Columbus and Cincinnati, it makes sense to have armed school staff in place to serve as a first line of defense. Sure, police may be able to respond to reports of an active shooter in two or three minutes, but that's still a long time for an attacker to have free rein in a school. Suburban and urban schools are also more likely to have dedicated school resource officers in place, but as research from Purdue University's Homeland Security Institute has shown, the fasted way to stop an active assailant attack on campus is to have SROs and armed school staff in place; with SRO's seeking out the attacker while armed staff shelter in place with the students under their care.
... computer modeling conducted by the HSI shows that two things can reduce fatalities in an active shooter situation on a school campus by more than 80%; the presence of a school resource officer who can engage the assailant, and 5-10% of school staff members who have been trained and are armed to protect kids in locked classrooms.
The idea isn’t teachers would be roaming the hallways looking for the attacker. Under Dietz’s modeling, that’s left up to law enforcement, with the armed staff members sheltering in place with their students and taking action only if the door to their classroom (or library, or administrative office) is breached.
Every one of the armed school staffers in Ohio has volunteered to take on that role, and they should be commended. They play a critical role in keeping students safe, especially on those campuses without a dedicated school resource officer.
While the growing number of schools with armed staff in place is a good thing, Ohio still has a way to go. According to the Dispatch there are 611 public school districts and 324 charter schools, so even though the number of school districts and private schools with armed staff on hand has doubled in the past two years, it's still only about 10% of schools statewide. That's a good start, but there's plenty of room to grow.
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