The South Side School District Board of Directors voted unanimously in October to approve several staff, including the superintendent and a principal, to act simultaneously as school police officers. Located in rural Beaver County, there is not a local police department to support the district and the response time for the state police averages around 15 to 20 minutes, according to the district’s solicitor, Jordan Shuber.

As appointed school police officers, both the superintendent and the principal can carry firearms on school property and respond in an emergency.

Shuber, an attorney with Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter & Graham, L.L.P., facilitated the approval process that included the school board and the Beaver County Court of Common Pleas. “Once the school board approved the individuals to serve as school police officers, we filed a petition in county court to appoint them officially in that capacity,” said Shuber.

In an interview with Broad + Liberty, Shuber explained that both the superintendent and the principal have extensive firearms training and experience, including Act 235 certification, better known as the Lethal Weapons Training Program. That legislation “provides for the training and licensing of watch guards, protective patrolmen, detectives, and criminal investigators in carrying and using lethal weapons in their employment.”

Additionally, the approved staff hold “School Security Personnel Basic Training” certificates as required under Act 67 which outlines the training for both school resource officers and school police officers — only school police officers are authorized to carry a firearm.

Shuber said that the South Side superintendent is the first one in the state to be appointed as a school police officer and authorized to carry a firearm at school. The district serves 878 students in grades K-12 and employs 84 teachers. 

“There has been strong support from the local community, while a few folks had concerns about how it might look,” said Shuber. The judge signed the order in early October, and the superintendent, principal, and two other staff members have been carrying firearms to school since then without incident.

The judge’s order, shown below, details what actions the school police officers are authorized to take. Shuber cited the cost savings of the program and the logistics as a major benefit. “Rather than hiring a school police officer at a full-time salary, the district is utilizing existing personnel who are experienced with firearms and who wanted to volunteer to serve in this capacity to protect their students in the case of an emergency.”

The practice of certifying existing school personnel to carry firearms in school has become more popular in the last decade, according to Second-Amendment journalist Stephen Gutowski, founder of The Reload, an independent publication “dedicated to accurately reporting the details and nuances of big gun stories.”

Gutowski “understands the rationale for arming school staff” but notes that “we don’t have a lot of data on it.” He said that he is seeing this practice in more rural areas where people in general are more comfortable with firearms, but he acknowledged it is a “highly controversial topic.”

He further explained that most school shootings happen when there are no armed security personnel on site, citing examples of “an armed officer either stopping a shooter completely or ending it before more people could be harmed.” Conversely, he is only aware of one incident where an armed teacher stopped a shooter.

Another potential advantage of armed staff is that school resource officers cannot be everywhere especially if the district has multiple buildings. “A few armed teachers could respond quickly and might take more risks to protect students given their daily connection in the classroom,” he said.

There are strong beliefs on both sides of the position. According to Gutowski, “advocates argue armed teachers could respond faster. Critics say more guns in school could lead to more accidental shootings.”

While Pennsylvania does not have a specific law to allow school personnel to carry firearms on school property, there are 32 states that have a lawful process for staff to conceal-carry at school, according to Laura Carno, Executive Director and board president of FASTER Colorado.

FASTER Colorado is “an organization dedicated to keeping children safe while they’re at school” and “supports arming teachers, staff, and administrators by offering world-class firearm and emergency response training.” 

The organization provides training required by school insurers for school security officers who have been authorized by their school board. FASTER’s training “in many cases, exceeds the annual training required by the school’s or the district’s insurance company.”

Carno explained the process in Colorado. “The local school district has to approve the plan for school security officers and the personnel who will be trained and certified.” She emphasized that it is “very much a local control issue.”

The personnel who are trained are 100 percent volunteers — no one is compelled to carry a firearm. She noted that bus drivers are sometimes included as part of the team because they often drive over an hour in remote areas with limited cell phone coverage.

Carno said that primarily rural districts are utilizing the model with approximately 50 out of 178 school districts in Colorado participating. The training is the same as the police academy training in handgun proficiency, and includes topics such as deescalation, how to stop an active killer, and firearms training. The initial training is 24 hours and then sixteen hours annually thereafter. The final test exceeds the law enforcement qualification with two additional shots required, and all school personnel must pass with 100 percent proficiency. Absent that, they are not certified to carry a firearm in school.

Carno founded the organization eight years ago and is passionate about the issue. “Children are the most precious people on our planet. We are saving innocent lives because they have no one else to protect them.”

Beth Ann Rosica resides in West Chester, has a Ph.D. in Education, and has dedicated her career to advocating on behalf of at-risk children and families. She covers education issues for Broad + Liberty. Contact her at barosica@broadandliberty.com.