(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) A recently passed Ohio law will allow properly trained teachers to carry guns in the classroom.
House Bill 99, the legislation that permits teachers and staff to carry firearms on campus after 24 hours of training and eight annual training hours, just became law, The Daily Wire reported.
“My office worked with the General Assembly to remove hundreds of hours of curriculum irrelevant to school safety and to ensure training requirements were specific to a school environment and contained significant scenario-based training,” Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement discussing the law’s signing.
“House Bill 99 accomplishes these goals, and I thank the General Assembly for passing this bill to protect Ohio children and teachers,” he added.
Local school boards will keep the authority to determine whether teachers in their district can keep firearms on campuses.
Many school districts, largely run by leftist Democrats across the state, responded by banning the practice on their campuses, including Akron Public Schools and Beachwood City Schools.
“We, therefore, stand united in calling for common-sense solutions to keep schools safe and opposing arming school staff,” the Akron Public School board announced. “We support the board’s resolution and policy changes aimed at keeping our schools safe by refusing to use the option that this new law offers.”
“By doing so, we are keeping our focus on providing the highest quality education to all of our scholars,” the Board said.
The school board in Cleveland also voted to oppose the new law. Cincinnati also announced they will not be allowing armed teachers.
Many school safety reforms have been proposed in the wake of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which resulted in the death of 19 students and two teachers at a local elementary school.
In Ohio, the legislation follows a 2016 shooting in which a 14-year old student opened fire on students in a school cafeteria.
