COLUMBUS, Ohio — A former teacher and lawmaker said there is a better way to keep students and staff from being victims of school shootings than arming teachers.
Former State Representative John Patterson, D-Jefferson, is speaking up as the Ohio Senate considers a bill to allow teachers across the state to carry guns in schools with less training than a police officer needs.
Patterson served four terms in the Ohio House of Representatives from 2013-2020. Prior to that, he taught high school history at Jefferson Area High School for nearly 30 years.
“As a teacher for all those years, I always was interested in the root causes of a student’s behavior,” said Patterson.
Patterson said that’s because when you hear about tragedies like school shootings, the problem starts with a student’s behavior.
“It’s the mental side and emotional side of (a) student’s composition, if you will, that we cannot overlook,” Patterson said.
That is what Patterson said lawmakers should continue to address and not House Bill 99. The bill would drop the minimum number of training hours a school staff member needs to carry a gun in school from 728 to 20.
Patterson recently wrote an op-ed for Cleveland.com saying: “A teacher’s approach to classroom safety should address lower-level issues like bullying as compared to the immediate threat caused by a situation involving firearms.”
As for the bill currently on the table, it has already passed the Ohio House of Representatives.
Rep. Thomas Hall, R-Madison Township, sponsored it in honor of his father, a school resource officer, who chased a school shooter out of Madison High School six years ago after the shooter shot four students.
“This has been law for the last few years of having guns in school. We’re just simply just trying to clarify that training requirement to allow for this practice to occur,” said Hall.
The bill would let districts put policies in place allowing employees to carry guns voluntarily if they had a permit and completed active shooter training.
Last summer, the Ohio Supreme Court stopped Madison Local Schools from doing just that but said lawmakers could address it if they want.
“I told a lot of schools all across Ohio if you didn’t do this practice before you probably won’t do this practice after this bill,” Hall said.
Meanwhile, Patterson said House Bill 99 is unnecessary because he and the General Assembly already passed a law addressing necessary training for school resource officers and set aside enough money to help make schools safer in the latest state budget.
“It’s listed as social, emotional, security or life support. We did not specify specifically so that local districts could decide how that money would be spent, but one paid professional for every 250 kids in that district,” said Patterson.
And with the money coming in July, Patterson said that is when communities will appreciate the plan the General Assembly has already passed to address school safety.
