In a first for the state of Idaho, the rural Green Valley School District will make firearms available to trained staff in the event of an active shooter targeting its K-12 school. School officials have purchased four rifles and ammunition that will be stored in gun safes and accessible to trained school personnel in an emergency. The school is also posting signs at both entrances warning that “our school is armed.”
According to Superintendent Greg Alexander, it can take emergency responders 45 minutes or more to reach the 300-student Green Valley School District, which is about an hour north of Boise and surrounded on three sides by Boise National Forest. “That is a long time before you can get to the school to help out,” Alexander said.
People from across the U.S. have called to express their support, according to Alexander, with advocates of the policy outnumbering opponents 75-to-1.