As Ohio’s 1.66 million school children return to classrooms this fall, more of their teachers may be carrying guns inside the K-12 schools.
Ninety-seven districts and individual schools are arming school personnel this year, up from 67 last year, according to the latest roster released by the Ohio Department of Public Safety. In August 2023, there were 46 school districts that decided to arm personnel.
In Summit County, only one school — Hametown Christian Academy in Norton — allows armed staff.
The only other schools in the area arming school personnel are Maplewood Career Center and Streetsboro City Schools in Portage County.
Rick Wright, head of safety for the school and an associate pastor at Hametown Christian Academy, said Aug. 25 that the decision was made to adopt the policy to protect students and staff.
“It was discussed and voted on by the school board,” Wright said. “In light of the school shootings in the past several years, we felt it prudent to arm teachers or staff members.”
Wright said that signage at the school alerts visitors to the policy, which Wright believes will help reduce the chance of an incident.
“A gun is not evil,” he said. “It is a tool, and the fact that some of our staff may be armed is a deterrent.”
The names of teachers and school personnel carrying guns are not public records, nor are the total number of armed staff in each district.
Wright said the school doesn’t publicize the names and number of staff with firearms. But he said anyone at the school permitted to carry a firearm knows what they’re doing with a weapon.
“We have a retired police officer as one of our staff,” he said. “Everyone that carries has been trianed by the state. We wouldn’t be carrying if we weren’t.”
He said parents and students have been receptive to the policy.
“We had one parent (who said) that’s the reason they put their child in our school,” he said. “They felt our school would be much safer because of that.”
He said the school grew about 50% this school year from last, from 42 to 64 students.
A sign in front of Locust Corner Elementary School informs the public that their staff may be armed at the school in New Richmond on Friday, Jan. 5, 2023. The sign is part of the policy required by the New Richmond school district in order to allow staff members access to firearms on school premises.
Districts in smaller, rural counties are more likely to arm their personnel than the larger, urban districts. That may reflect a concern about longer police response times in far flung areas.
For example, seven districts, one private school and a career tech center in Belmont County opted to arm personnel. One private school in each of Summit and Hamilton counties and no districts in Franklin County opted to arm personnel.
Wright said that although more rural areas adopt an armed-staff policy, any district would benefit from one.
“You put up a no gun zone (and) basically you’re telling somebody you can come in here and shoot all you want,” he said. “It works the oposite (of the intent); you’ve made yourself a soft target.”
What Ohio school districts allow armed staff?
How much training is required?
Ohio lowered its minimum training hours for arming school staff when Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 99 in September 2022. The new law created the Ohio School Safety and Crisis Center within the Department of Public Safety.
Under the law, school employees need up to 24 hours of initial training, then up to eight hours of requalification training annually. The training must include: scenarios, mitigation and de-escalation techniques, how to neutralize threats, and tactical live firearms training.
The state spent $78,000 to purchase mobile shoot houses from North Carolina-based Kontek Industries, which sells surveillance systems, body armor, gun turret systems and more. The shoot houses can be assembled on site − indoor or outdoor − and can be configured to resemble houses, offices or other buildings.
The shoot houses are being used in the 24-hour certification classes and the 8-hour re-certification classes, according to public safety officials.
The majority of Ohio’s public and private schools aren’t arming their staff. Ohio has 611 public school districts and 324 charter schools. Exactly which buildings are opting to let employees carry weapons is not a public record.
State government reporter Laura Bischoff can be reached at lbischoff@gannett.com or @lbischoff on X.
The Akron Beacon Journal contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Which Ohio schools allow armed employees in 2025?
