COLUMBUS — A proposed law designed to overrule an Ohio Supreme Court decision this summer surrounding the arming of teachers and other school staff passed the Ohio House Wednesday.
House Bill 99 would reduce the amount of training a person would need to have to be able to carry a gun to 20 hours. Eighteen of those hours would be general training and two hours would be handgun training, according to the bill.
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The House passed the bill by a 58-33 vote. State Representatives Phil Plummer, Jena Powell, Kyle Koehler and Rodney Creech voted in favor of the bill. It now will move to the Senate for consideration.
In June, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld a decision that prohibits teachers, administrators and staff members from carrying guns while they are on duty, unless they have basic peace officer training or have had 20 years experience as a peace officer.
The 4-3 decision struck down a 2018 Madison Local School Board of Education “firearm authorization policy.” That policy would have allowed up to 10 employees with CCW permits and had met other training requirements to carry concealed weapons in a school safety zone, according to the Supreme Court.
The policy was developed after the 2016 shooting at Madison Junior-Senior High School that wounded four students.
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Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor sided with the majority and said a school employee must meet the training-or-experience requirements that apply to those persons employed by schools as special police officers or security guards if the employee “goes armed” during the time the employee is performing job duties, whatever those duties might be, according to the Supreme Court.
Several other districts also had created new gun programs around the time of the Madison Local Schools shooting.
An estimated 30 Ohio school districts, including Sidney City Schools, Mad River Local Schools and Newton Local Schools, had previously included in their security plans guns that are locked in safes, ready to be used by trained staff in case an active shooter enters school grounds.
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