Though the district has a school resource officer, that person can’t be everywhere at the same time for 841 students and three buildings, Rau added.
“You always want to send the kids home in as good or better shape than the parents sent them to you in the morning,” Davis said. “I feel that being able to protect them in any way is guaranteeing that.”
The policy must be approved by the Ohio Board of Education before it takes effect.
Manchester Local Schools’ measure follows in the wake of Madison Local Schools, which won a ruling in favor of their approved teacher training being sufficient enough to allow carry their campus.
“Given that no school employee could ever be expected to complete over 700 hours of training, and given the expense of hiring security or police officers, a loss by Madison Local Schools in this case could create precedent that could potentially prevent anyone from being armed in Ohio schools and making them completely defenseless from active killers looking for easy targets,” said Dean Rieck, executive director of Buckeye Firearms Association.