DAYTON, Ohio — It’s now easier in Ohio for teachers and other staff members to carry firearms in school. But now that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 99, significantly reducing the amount of training needed to carry a firearm in schools, districts are deciding if they are ready to go along with it.

The idea of arming school staff is nothing new to Mad River Local Schools. In 2016, the district’s board of education passed a resolution that allowed certain staff to have access to firearms, but just year last year the program ended after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled against it. 

“One layer of safety that we thought was most important was allowing our staff access to firearms in order to respond in the event that we had an armed intruder in one of our buildings,” said Chad Wyen, Mad River Local Schools superintendent.

Since House Bill 99 passed, Wyen said his response team is ready to go. 

All 30 of his confidential staff members have gone through 24 hours of the faster saves lives training, 20 hours of OPOTA private security firearms training and regularly trains with local law enforcement. All the staff has gone through background checks.

“We had a lot of time together as a team practicing scenarios and making sure that if we do have an armed intruder, we are able to eliminate that threat and protect our students and staff and our families in our buildings,” he said. 

House Bill 99 allows staff to be armed only if they have had 24 hours of initial training, eight additional training hours annually and passed a background check through the Department of Public Safety. While staff may carry the firearms, at Mad River Local Schools, staff will keep the firearms out of reach.

“We do have firearms housed in very specific locations for ease of access for the staff in order to respond in the event we have an active shooter event,” he said. 

While there are school districts on board with arming teachers and staff, others like Cincinnati Public Schools are not. Teachers like Clayton Adams were relieved the CPS Board of Education voted against using actions allowed by HB 99.

“We didn’t go to school to essentially carry firearms in the classroom,” said Adams. “It’s just not a part of a teacher’s job duty in my opinion. So I think that’s just a little bit out of the expectations.”

Instead of arming teachers, CPS has a lock down drill where the students hide from the active shooter. They also have a school resource officer on hand if needed and mental health services.

“The lockdown drills or the active shooter drills is just something to do in case there is actually a school shooting, but I think there needs to be a more proactive approach to preventing these things,” he said. 

Wyen agreed school resource officers are a great help when fighting off an intruder, but believes they are limited and can only do so much by themselves. 

“For us at Mad River, we know that if there were ever an active shooter event in one of our buildings, I have staff that are willing to sacrifice their lives to save kids,” he said.