An Oklahoma public school district has given its teachers and staff the okay to carry guns on school grounds.
Okay Public Schools is the first in the state to allow it, and the administration sees the policy as a substitute for hiring campus police officers, according to News On 6.
“If something were to ever happen and I didn’t try to defend my kids, I couldn’t live with that,” Superintendent Charles McMahan told News on 6.
The school system is in a rural area and educates about 400 students.
For any teachers or staff to carry a weapon on campus, they must seek approval from the school board and complete security training, then undergo tests throughout the year.
McMahan claims that the standards to carry a gun will be higher than those for the average police officer in Oklahoma.
The move is rare, but not unheard of. After a mass shooting at a school, discussion arises over whether allowing teachers to carry a weapon would be an effective deterrent against a future attack. In Ohio, about 40 school districts allow teachers and staff to carry concealed weapons after some training.
More than two dozen states have laws that allow teachers to carry guns in public schools. The policy has been controversial, with supporters claiming deterrence and self-defense, while opponents say that it endangers children more than it protects them. A few instances have occurred where accidental discharges have harmed teachers themselves, but no children have been harmed so far. Nor, it seems, has an armed teacher stopped an active shooter — yet.
