Arkansas school district arming employees with concealed weapons

A small school district in Arkansas is arming its employees. More than 20 teachers, administrators and other school employees in the 9,000-population town of Clarksville, Ark. will be carrying concealed weapons when the 2013-14 school year begins, "making use of a little-known Arkansas law that allows licensed, armed security guards on campus," The Associated Press reports. The state Department of Education said no school district had ever used the law to arm teachers on the job, although one district has long kept guns locked in case of an emergency. (AP photo by Danny Johnston: A student loads blank ammunition into one of two starter pistols being used for training exercises at Clarksville High School in Clarksville)

Clarksville Public Schools superintendent David Hopkins said, "The plan we've been given in the past is 'Well, lock your doors, turn off your lights and hope for the best. That's not a plan." Hopkins said he received a flurry of calls after the Newton, Conn. shootings, and thought school officials could protect students better than hiring someone from outside. Hopkins said,  "We're not tying our money up in a guard 24/7 that we won't have to have unless something happens. We've got these people who are already hired and using them in other areas. Hopefully we'll never have to use them as a security guard."

Participants in the program underwent 53 hours of training, and "are given a one-time $1,100 stipend to purchase a handgun and holster," the AP reports. The cost to the district for ammunition and training is about $50,000, Hopkins said. Training includes role-playing, where students pretend to be armed intruders, or hostages, and employees responded with guns at the ready.

Jon Hodoway, director of training for Nighthawk Custom Training Academy, the company conducting the training exercises, said teachers are "going to respond to one thing and one thing alone, and that's someone is in the building either actively or attempting to kill people. That's it. They're not going to enforce the law. They're not going to make traffic stops. If somebody is outside acting the fool, they're going to call the police."

Signs will be posted at schools alerting of armed guards, but the identities of employees with concealed weapons will not be announced. Ohio teachers took a similar course, which was considered the first of its kind, earlier this year, A rural Oregon school has tested readiness of teachers by having drills were an armed gunman attacks, while the Arizona Senate passed a bill in March allowing some rural staff members to carry guns.