BELLBROOK — Guns will be in Bellbrook-Sugarcreek school buildings, but not in classrooms and no employees will be carrying firearms, a school board member told News Center 7 on Friday.
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The board member’s comments to reporter Molly Koweek came one day after the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Board of Education voted unanimously to create a volunteer active shooter response team.
“We can guarantee that all firearms will be safely and securely stored, and at all times be inaccessible to all unauthorized individuals,” the board member, Mike Kinsey, said.
Thursday night’s school board meeting was the first time the board publicly discussed the topic of an active shooter response team, a discussion that received some pushback from a member of the Sugarcreek Education Association. The member of the teacher’s union urged the school board to take more time before deciding to create the response team.
“Sitting here tonight during this presentation, I have to tell you the truth, that I feel that it’s very choreographed, and that I’m very, I’m very concerned that like this decision is being made, and without any teacher input whatsoever,” the teacher’s union member said.
People on both sides of the issue took the opportunity to address the school board Thursday night.
“As law enforcement officers, we always hear the term, ‘it takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun,’ that situation in my
opinion holds merit,” said Logan Ashley, a parent. “However in the school system, it is dangerous, and does not give thought the totality of circumstances.”
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Another speaker, Kevin Martin, said his wife and daughter are teachers in Kettering.
“There is no way they would not lay down their life in any, any capacity, for those kids,” he said. " I know that, I passionately know that. I’ve heard their hearts. So why not give them a chance in heck to be able to do something about it to stop it?”
Friday, school board member Kinsey said the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, prompted the local school district to evaluate its security.
“That really kicked off a really deep security audit and making sure hey, if there’s any deficiencies that we have at all, what can we do with the help of our local subject matter experts, to make sure that we make Bellbrook-Sugarcreek schools as safe as possible,” he said.
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When will the district implement the response team? Kinsey said he did not know.
Bellbrook-Sugarcreek schools is the third area district to announce the creation of an active shooter response team.
Mad River Schools plans to bring back its team, district officials said earlier this summer.
The Benjamin Logan school board also signed off on a plan to arm school employees.