Portage County superintendents respond to House Bill decreasing firearm training hours for teachers

This month, school districts across Ohio will decide whether to adopt Ohio’s new school safety bill, which reduces the amount of time required for teachers to carry firearms in their classrooms.

In June, Ohio governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill 99 into law, which reduces the firearm training time for teachers from 750 hours to 24.

This law will go into effect September 11th, and school boards across the state of Ohio will decide whether to implement the new legislation.

Schools across Northeast Ohio such as Akron Public Schools and Cleveland Metropolitan School District have already rejected the bill this summer.

The new law’s opt-in program extends to school districts in Portage County. Kent City Schools superintendent George Joseph opposes the training requirements, citing the new legislation would force Kent City Schools to extensively change their safety policies to fit the new law.

“We’d have to change three or four different policies we currently have in place in order to allow that to happen,” Joseph said. “And I don’t see that happening here at Kent City Schools. I really believe with having an SRO, . . .  we have a police department in the city of Kent, and we have a police department at the University. We all communicate and work together. There’s really no need for our staff to carry weapons.”

Within the past two years, Kent City Schools updated each school with a Raptor security system, which was purchased as part of the district’s $25 million bond issue.

According to Joseph, the Raptor system protects students and faculty by requiring outside visitors to scan their driver’s license prior to entering their buildings. The system runs an instant background check – if the software detects a criminal history such as gun violence, the administration and local police are alerted, and the system prevents the visitor from entering the building.

Other schools in Portage County such as Rootstown Local Schools have yet to determine whether they will adopt HB99.

Rootstown Superintendent Andrew Hawkins declined to comment on the presence of armed teachers in their school system, but said the district recently received automatic-locking doors this summer for every school building.

House Bill 99 has received sharp criticism from Ohio law enforcement agencies and teachers’ unions, citing the short time frame required for teachers to carry a firearm in their classrooms.

Ohio Education Association President Mike DiMauro expressed his disappointment in a press release mid-June, calling the 24-hour training period “absurd”.

“Our students and educators need to be in safe environments where they can focus on teaching and learning,” DiMauro said in the press release, “not on the threat of having unprepared, woefully undertrained people—regardless of their good intentions—making split-second life-or-death decisions about whether to pull the trigger in a chaotic classroom full of innocent bystanders.”

DiMauro said the OEA will continue to provide resources for school districts so they can cooperate with law enforcement to pursue alternative options to arming teachers.

“If a community believes they need to have an armed security presence on school grounds, rather than adding more to the plate of teachers, custodians, principals or other people that have other jobs,” DiMauro said, “then get people who are fully trained and who specialize in this kind of (field).”

Shortly after signing the bill, DeWine sent a letter to superintendents across the state affirming the law is optional for school districts to adopt.

DeWine noted school safety measures passed during his tenure such as:

• $1.2 billion for student mental health programs
• $100 million in safety upgrades for school districts
• The establishment of the Ohio School Safety Center in 2019
• Behavior Threat Assessment Training at Education Service Centers (ESCs)