One Small Step

[PegLeg45]

Kudos to Clarksville ............ maybe this will cause a ripple effect throughout other school systems.

Ark. district arming more than 20 teachers, staff

CLARKSVILLE, Ark. (AP) — As Cheyne Dougan rounded the corner at Clarksville High School, he saw three students on the floor moaning and crying. In a split-second, two more ran out of a nearby classroom.

"He's got a gun," one of them shouted as Dougan approached with his pistol drawn. Inside, he found one student holding another at gunpoint. Dougan aimed and fired three rounds at the gunman.

Preparing for such scenarios has become common for police after a school shooting in Connecticut last December left 20 children and six teachers dead. But Dougan is no policeman. He's the assistant principal of this school in Arkansas, and when classes resume in August, he will walk the halls with a 9 mm handgun.

Dougan is among more than 20 teachers, administrators and other school employees in this town who will carry concealed weapons throughout the school day, making use of a little-known Arkansas law that allows licensed, armed security guards on campus. After undergoing 53 hours of training, Dougan and other teachers at the school will be considered guards.

"The plan we've been given in the past is 'Well, lock your doors, turn off your lights and hope for the best,'" Superintendent David Hopkins said. But as deadly incidents continued to happen in schools, he explained, the district decided, "That's not a plan."

After the Connecticut attack, the idea of arming schoolhouses against gunmen was hotly debated across the country. The National Rifle Association declared it the best response to serious threats. But even in the most conservative states, most proposals faltered in the face of resistance from educators or warnings from insurance companies that schools would face higher premiums.

In strongly conservative Arkansas, where gun ownership is common and gun laws are permissive, no school district had ever used the law to arm teachers on the job, according to the state Department of Education. The closest was the Lake Hamilton School District in Garland County, which for years has kept several guns locked up in case of emergency. Only a handful of trained administrators — not teachers — have access to the weapons.

Clarksville, a community of 9,200 people about 100 miles northwest of Little Rock, is going further.

Home to an annual peach festival, the town isn't known for having dangerous schools. But Hopkins said he faced a flood of calls from parents worried about safety after the attack last year at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

Hopkins said he and other school leaders didn't see why the district couldn't rely on its own staff and teachers to protect students rather than hire someone.

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Ark-district-arming-more-than-20-teachers-staff-4694796.php

[Solus]

It's already been rippling....

I've read of several school districts doing the same.

[JLawson]

From the article:

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, a Democrat, wrote in a legal opinion issued by his office that a state board that licenses private security agencies didn't have the authority to allow districts to employ their teachers and staff as security guards. A state lawmaker requested the opinion a day after The Associated Press reported on a plan by the Clarksville School District in western Arkansas to use more than 20 teachers and staff as volunteer security guards armed with concealed 9 mm handguns.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/02/arkansas-ag-schools-cant-arm-teachers-staff/?test=latestnews

The "state lawmaker" mentioned above has an agenda... and it doesn't include the safety of children and staff. 

[Solus]

Read the article and I don't know that we can fault the AG.

From the laws he quoted, his opinion is correct...it is against the law.

However, he pretty much indicated he and his office would do noting to prosecute and that the local DA would need to make that decision to prosecute or not.

His job here was to interrupter the law..and he did it correctly.

He does make it clear that the law says it is OK to protect customers, but not kids...  if anything that is pointing out how absurd and faulty the law is.

Now the citizens need to notice that and get the law changed.