Posted on 01/12/2013 7:39:41 AM PST by marktwain
An Ohio school board has unanimously voted to place armed custodians on their k-12 campus in an effort to better protect their students from a future mass shooting.
Following Wednesday's believed unprecedented 5-0 vote in the state, four male janitors were the first to volunteer to arm themselves with their own handguns on the rural Montpelier campus, the Toledo Blade reports.
The vote will permit only non-teaching employees to carry the firearms on the campus, so long as they complete a weapons training course.
'It's kind of a sign of the times,' Superintendent Jamies Grime said on Friday.
The move comes as districts and lawmakers across the nation weigh how to protect students following the December school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.
The school board's legal counsel accompanied the vote, Mr Grime told the Blade, who advised Ohio’s gun law which allows school boards to authorize employees to possess weapons on school grounds, should they pass the requirements of the concealed-carry law.
The school's decision would not be the first, at least in the country, however.
A school district in Harrold, Texas has allowed its teachers and other employees to carry weapons on campus since 2007, reports the New York Daily News.
Following the December shooting in Newtown, school districts in Oklahoma, Missouri, Minnesota, South Dakota and Oregon are also considering similar gun safety amendments.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I’ve said it all along. If you want armed personnel, nobody is better than a janitor.
They’re generally pretty unobtrusive, they have access to all areas, and they know their way around a school like no one else.
Isn’t it interesting that we get more news on the subject from a British paper.
My only question is what is the difference if the person carrying the gun is a teaching or non-teaching person? If they are trained in handling so what? Methinks the teachers, probably the union, have said they would rather die than touch one of those instruments from Hell.
It is a very good idea, even if I think it would be even better to allow all armed citizens to carry in the schools.
When I went to Catholic school xx years ago, we would bring our guns to school so that we would be ready for our fathers to pick us up at 3:00pm and head to Northern Michigan for either pheasant, rabbit or deer season.
The season would dictate the weapon.
The nuns would take our guns, put a label on them, and stack them in the corner.
Adam Lanza would not stand a chance against a trained 12 year old with a 30.06.
No guards necessary.
An armed janitor will never be in a predictable location, but always close at hand. They will also be 100% efficient for the school. We now live in a union mindset country, where single-tasking is the norm.
In the 80s (Also Michigan) we had to leave ours locked in our cars if we drove. They couldn’t go on the bus so a parent had to bring us and the gun would be left in the principals office for the day.
No shootings have ever occurred at that school.
Mrs. Bears is an elementary school teacher and has done a complete 180 on arming teachers. We’re going to the gun show next weekend to look for a carry pistol with pink grips.
Personally, I think making firearm training and a CCW permit conditions of employment would go a long way toward weeding liberals out of public education.
You are absolutely right. Mr. RightField has taught high school for 45 years and knows the value of respecting and maintaining a good relationship with the custodians and the food service people. It is always a win-win situation.
Those were the first words that popped into my head.
Finally, a common sense solution.
Too bad common sense isn’t.
Excellent Point !!!
Janitors always have their cart handy which makes a great place for a mobile gun safe. (Its unlikely that they’ll be walking around with a gun in a holster.)
Sort of a "don't ask, don't tell" approach. If the bad guys don't know who is armed in a school, they are less likely to open fire.
After watching the teachers unions in action in Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and other places, I think it is a much better idea to arm the janitors than the teachers
As it should be.
Unfortunately the janitor is a long time target of Hollywood for painting as the buffoon.
In my experience they’re some of the most solid common sense minds in a school building or anywhere else. (I did a few years as a school janitor myself)
Huffington Post is calling this a “risky decision.” Could that be because leftwing elites hold working class people in contempt? Surely a stupid JANITOR can’t be trusted with a gun.
Morons.
I believe we are playing right into the hands of the marxists. Another bloated government agency to feed.
This is going to be like the homeland security mess all over again. Incompetent union thugs carrying guns and a lots of red tape. Maybe some laid off DMV or postal workers paid by the federal government and supervised by radical school teachers. Look 20 years in the future and imagine what could go wrong.
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