The Cobb County Board of Education has voted to approve a measure allowing non-certified district employees to carry guns inside school buildings, according to a recent report by FOX 5 Atlanta.
This comes in the wake of numerous mass shootings across the country, including the Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde, Texas in May that resulted in the loss of 19 students and two teachers.
“Quite simply, this policy gives us other opportunities to enhance and increase the number of school resource officers,” Superintendent Chris Ragsdale told FOX 5 Atlanta. “…I was not in favor of arming teachers, but I was in favor of exploring all possibilities of being able to enhance and increase the number of school resource officers that we have.”
At the end of the long and often loud meeting, the board voted 4-2 to approve the new action, which does not include teachers and staff that are not in the classroom, FOX 5 reports. The district also plans to hire retired military and law enforcement officers to fill newly created positions where the workers will directly report to the Cobb County School District chief of police.
According to the report, those opposed to the measure stress that in the Uvalde, Texas massacre armed trained officers were slow in executing their takedown of the gunman, with Cobb County chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference member Rich Pellegrino adding, “It hasn’t worked well in law enforcement because the battlefield is much different than the streets of America.”
As of now, Cobb County School District has 67 police officers covering 114 campuses, the report states.
