The board said arming staff would create a dangerous school environment.
“The Dayton Public Schools Board of Education believes that teachers and other educators in our schools, who educate, mentor and nurture their students should not be asked to arm themselves with deadly weapons in a misguided attempt to make their students safer,” the resolution read.
Gov. Mike DeWine on June 13 signed HB 99, which reduces the training requirement for school employees authorized by a school board to be armed from more than 600 hours to 24 hours of initial instruction and eight hours of annual requalification training.
It also creates the Ohio School Safety and Crisis Center under the state Department of Public Safety.
State Rep. Thomas Hall, R-Madison Twp., Butler County, introduced HB 99 in February 2021. It passed the House in November but lingered in a Senate committee until the May 24 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 elementary students and two teachers died.
The two major Ohio teachers’ unions — the Ohio Federation of Teachers and the Ohio Education Association — issued a joint statement earlier this month calling the proposal “dangerous and irresponsible.”
Read the resolution:
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