Benjamin Logan School board approves training plan for arming teachers and staff

BELLEFONTAINE — A Logan County school district will begin the process to arm school staff members after the school board approved a training plan this week.

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The Benjamin Logan School Board signed off Monday on training school employees so people will be ready to stop anyone with wrong intentions.

“Teachers, custodians, secretaries, aides,” said John Scheu, Benjamin Logan School Superintendent. “Anyone that works in the school district could conceivably be part of this trained response team.”

Scheu tells News Center 7′s Molly Koweek that he supports his board’s decision to approve training volunteers for a possible armed response team.

“I don’t know whether it’s the right step,” he said, “but there has been no better plan that I have seen in terms of dealing with an active shooter once they get in the school building.”

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The move is in response to Governor DeWine signing House Bill 99 into law, which allows Ohio schools to arms school employees with up to 24 hours of training, Scheu said.

“There’s nothing more important than ensuring the safety and protection of innocent kids and teachers,” he said. “If you don’t have a safe school environment, you can’t do anything else.”

Scheu said his district is waiting on state curriculum before it starts training and that training will cost about $1,000.

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The board would need to approve actually arming the teachers before they can carry, he said.

“The most important thing is what a school district does once the active shooter gets into the building,” Scheu said. “You could have the most secure building in the county, and if an active shooter wants to get in, they will do that. Then the question becomes, what is your plan of action?”

The superintendent tells Koweek that we would like to see three to five armed staff members in each of the district’s buildings.

Correction: A previous version of this story indicated the district has approved a final plan to arm school staff members. That was incorrect, the district’s school board only approved a plan for the training to begin.

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