Ohio Senate expected to vote on bill lowering training for arming teachers

Ohio Republicans are moving to lower training requirements for teachers who want to carry guns following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School where 19 children and two teachers died.

But how low they go appears to be up to Sen. Frank Hoagland, R-Mingo Junction.

The retired Navy SEAL folded major sections of his own school protection legislation into House Bill 99 Tuesday afternoon, setting up a potential vote by the full Senate Wednesday.

The changes raised the number of training hours from 20 to 24, mandated all training be approved by a new team within the Ohio Department of Public Safety, added annual criminal background checks and included at least four hours of training in scenarios that mimic a school shooting.

And while opponents appreciated some of the changes, Democrats, parents, first responders and educators all argued that 24 hours was nowhere close to adequate.

"You're putting guns into schools with little to no training," Sen. Cecil Thomas, D-Cincinnati, said. "That is unconscionable."

How we got here

Ohio allows individual school districts to decide whether staff can carry firearms, but the question, for years, had been how much training is legally required.

In June 2021, the Ohio Supreme Court ended the ambiguity, deciding 4-3 that school personnel who want to carry firearms would need extensive police training (about 728 hours) or 20 years of experience.

More: Read the court's decision in Gabbard v. Madison Local School Board District of Education.

Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor wrote that state law banned schools from employing security guards or "other position in which such person goes armed while on duty” without peace officer training or experience.

"Applying the plain, ordinary meaning of the statutory language, a school employee who is not employed as a special police officer or security guard is employed in an 'other position,'" O'Connor wrote.

More: Teachers can't carry firearms without police training, Ohio Supreme Court rules

Justice Sharon Kennedy, who is running to replace O'Connor in November and is a former police officer, disagreed.

But the 4-3 decision stood, and schools across Ohio had to end their programs or increase their training.

Republicans move to change the law

That's why state Rep. Thomas Hall, R-Middletown, introduced HB 99.

"In my bill, we simply give local control to the school boards and local governing bodies to decide what amount of training is necessary," Hall said at the time.

It passed the Ohio House 58-33 in November 2021 and had one hearing in the Senate in March. Hoagland and Hall have been having conversations for months, but the urgency around passing this legislation appeared to increase following the Uvalde shooting.

That's not unusual.

In 2013, the year after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, more than 30 states introduced legislation relating to arming teachers or other school staff, according to the Council of State Governments.

And Florida passed a similar law after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Though that legislation required 144 training hours.

Hoagland, during a USA Today Network Ohio Bureau interview in December, had some questions about the policy he helped pass in committee Tuesday.

"But let's really ask ourselves: Can you kill your kids?" Hoagland said in December. "Because that's what you're asking a teacher who probably spends more time with those kids than the parents do. And then we're going to put the pressure on them to take that shot in a populated hallway?"

Hoagland later said he wasn't convinced arming teachers was the best solution to the problem of school violence.

"We did some studies looking at, you know, putting a weapon system in a teacher's hand. It's a failure. I have no interest in doing that," Hoagland told the USA Today Ohio Bureau in December. "But I'm not going to tell schools that they can't do it because that's your first line of defense...I think we should be vetting and validating the individuals."

Opponents of the legislation said the same thing, including a firefighter from Butler County named Dan Adams who said his job required more than 1,000 training hours.

"This is much more, in my mind, important role with much less training," he said. "It’s radical."

What's next?

HB 99 is expected to be on the Ohio Senate floor Wednesday afternoon. If lawmakers pass the bill, it will have to go back to the House for one more vote before heading to the governor.

A spokesperson for House Republicans said Hoagland and Hall have been working closely on the changes.

Democrats and public school advocates still have some concerns though, like parental notification.

The bill doesn't require school districts to tell parents that they plan to let teachers, coaches, bus drivers and other staff carry firearms.

Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro has said it's not about knowing who has a gun but how much training they've had so parents can decide whether they feel that's adequate. It's about parental choice.

For example, Highland Elementary School in South Bloomfield Township had authorized its staff to carry guns. But parents didn't know until a first-grader removed his grandmother's gun from an unlocked desk in March 2019 and pointed it at another student.

"We aren't trusted with the books we choose," Ohio Federation of Teachers Vice President Shari Obrenski said. "But somehow we're supposed to be trusted with a gun in school?"

Anna Staver and Laura Bischoff are reporters with the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau. It serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio: Bill to set training hours for staff carrying guns in schools