“This resolution for armed staff differs from the one in November,” Crew said. “We homed in and included more information. After comments at the November board meeting, long deliberation and research, (the board) passed it with stipulations added.”
These stipulations include:
- Participation in the program is voluntary and limited to certain individuals who are approved by the superintendent.
- No staff member shall regularly carry firearms on their person other than School Resource Officers (police SROs).
- Firearms (other than those carried by SROs) will be secured in a locked safe.
- All individuals who are authorized will complete and pass the required 24-hour training with the Ohio School Safety Center and any additional training as determined by the district safety team. They also must pass a psychological assessment and a yearly background check, and complete a minimum of 8 hours of training to re-certify.
A few people at Tuesday’s meeting expressed worries about arming staff. Greta Eber, librarian at Donnelsville Elementary School, talked about staff having to be prepared to potentially end someone’s life, while Jacquelyn Mann talked about ways to prevent school shootings.
Kerry Cassell, Tecumseh’s teacher’s union president, asked the board to postpone the vote, saying that arming staff can result in additional liability risks and can jeopardize a trusting school environment, “which is essential for school safety.”
“What we are essentially doing is asking our staff to take the life of a student and that’s unrealistic. A staff member cannot, in total chaos, be able to turn into a specially trained law enforcement officer,” she said.
Cassell said of staff who responded to a union survey, 73% are opposed to the policy and feel they will not be safe at work. She also expressed concerns about transparency around the policy.
Board President Sue Anne Martin explained that school board members discuss some safety details in closed executive session rather than in public, per state law.
“I want to assure everybody sitting in this room and anybody that hears this afterwards or reads the minutes, that we talked about this in my first meeting when I was sitting on the board, so we have been having these conversations,” she said. “There are five of us sitting here, we’ve been elected by our school district to serve as representatives, and I would hope that people pause and know that this is not a rush decision.”
The resolution says the board believes that “the safety of their students and staff is paramount” and that “approved administrators, teachers, and school support staff with appropriate training are capable to defend and protect students and that such protection is essential in creating and preserving a proper learning environment.”
The national debate over arming school staff has gone on for years. Among the many lines of argument, some say the move is essential to reduce response time, pointing to school shootings where people were killed while waiting for police to arrive. Others say even lifelong police officers struggle to respond effectively in these situations, so teachers with mere hours of training could do more harm than good.
Other language in the armed-staff resolution says the trained, armed staff would be allowed as long as Tecumseh’s school board notifies the public, pays all training fees and submits a list of authorized personnel to the Ohio School Safety Center. The list of armed, trained staff “shall not be disclosed and shall not be considered a public record.”
A discussion and vote on allowing armed staff in schools had been postponed at the November board meeting.
Religion — LifeWise
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the board reviewed the released time for religious instruction policy, which now contains a provision that students will only be eligible to attend such off-site programs during scheduled lunches and recess, Crew said. A vote will be taken during next month’s meeting at 6 p.m. Feb. 18 in the Tecumseh High School Arrow Conference Room.
Other requirements include no recruiting materials, business cards, candy, treats, trinkets, etc. can be provided to students to bring back to the school building and cannot be given to students not in the program. Also, shortened schools days such as two-hour delays, early release days and state testing weeks are excluded from the policy.
A discussion during the September school board meeting included a request from LifeWise to offer their Christian religion program during the school day to students in the district. The district delayed a vote due to pending action from the state legislature, and in December, that body passed a bill requiring school districts to create a religious released time policy.
The U.S. Supreme Court has previously ruled that released time laws for religious education for public school students are constitutional, with some specifications.
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