EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published by News 5 partner WCPO and was edited to include information about Northeast Ohio school districts. A previous version of this story listed the Highland School District in Medina County, which was incorrect. The Highland School District is located in Morrow County.
There are 46 Ohio school districts authorized to arm teachers and staff members, according to numbers provided by the state earlier this month.
It’s been just over a year since Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 99, which reduced training requirements for staff members to carry firearms on campus.
Ohio currently requires armed staff members to receive at least 24 hours of initial training and eight hours of annual requalification training. Training includes scenario-based and live-fire exercises.
The law drastically reduced training requirements after a 2021 Ohio Supreme Court ruling upped them to 700 initial hours.
“Previously, that training had a lot of law enforcement-based topics that weren't applicable to using a firearm in a school,” said Emily Torok, executive director of the Ohio School Safety Center. “Now they're very specific.”
The training requirements can be satisfied through successfully completing the Ohio School Safety Center’s (OSSC) ASSET program or through another organization whose training has been approved by the OSSC. OSSC has 16 mobile training officers around the state.
Ohio law requires instruction that’s focused on mitigation techniques, de-escalation techniques, crisis intervention, the history of school shootings, tactical live firearms training and more.
Williamsburg Local School District, located outside Cincinnati, has armed teachers since 2019. However, the district paused its program in 2021 after the state Supreme Court ruling. It brought back the program last year after H.B. 99 took effect.
“That is a truly voluntary program for our staff,” said Williamsburg Superintendent Matt Earley. “It’s a several-month process.”
Earley could not provide details on how many staff members are armed, or how numbers have changed since 2019. He said there has never been an instance in which a weapon has been discharged on campus.
“If that happened, we would be reevaluating a lot of things,” he said.
Ohio schools authorized to have armed staff by WCPO 9 News on Scribd
News 5 partner WCPO asked OSSC if any armed staff member has ever discharged their weapon on a school campus. Torok said districts are not required to report that information to the OSSC.
“The impact we hope, in 25 years, 50 years, 75 years, is that nobody will ever have known who was armed staff trained, what it looked like at a close level, and certainly that we never had to use it,” Earley said.
Torok said the law has provided the state with additional data on how many campuses arm staff. Previously, she said there was no requirement to report information to OSSC.
“It's not a lot of educators,” Torok said. “It’s more so the school-based staff that are roaming around the building regularly, that would probably have more access and control outside of a classroom setting.”
Even if districts opt out of armed staff, they may still have individuals who are armed on campus. Districts may have school resource officers (which Williamsburg also has) or private security forces, that may or may not be armed.
“A few rural schools are taking advantage of this opportunity just based on their location with law enforcement,” she said.
The state offers additional training for districts that want it too. More information can be found here.
