When Mad River Local Schools in Ohio recently arranged to have several teachers and staff trained in the defensive use of firearms so they could better protect students, the district took a prudent step toward safety. Yet a newspaper reporting on the event chose to make a mockery of it.
In a feature at daytonedailynews.com, Staff Writer Will Garbe apparently just couldn’t help himself, writing in the lead sentence: “Intruders beware: Thirty-two teachers and staff in Mad River Local Schools are now armed and ready to kill.”
Garbe’s flippant treatment of the subject aside, those trained staff members are now better prepared to protect themselves and their students than ever before. And apparently that’s not a new thing in Ohio. “Sixty-three out of 88 counties in Ohio have a district with a response team,” Superintendent Chad Wyen is quoted as saying in the same story.
I suppose Garbe considers all those trained teachers and staff members “ready to kill,” too.
