The superintendent of an Arkansas school district that has already trained staff to act as armed guards told the Arkansas News Bureau Sunday that equipping school employees with guns is essential to security, citing a recent elementary school shooting in Georgia as evidence.
“What was shown in Atlanta is that regardless of the exterior measures … all the things you try to put in place, you really need that ultimate fail safe if someone really does get into your building with a firearm with the intent to destroy lives,” Clarksville School District Superintendent David Hopkins said. “You can feel good about your door locks and all these other things, but is that going to stand up and defend your kids? Obviously not. It didn’t work.”
The Clarksville district has trained 20 staff and teachers to act as armed security personnel, Hopkins told the Bureau, but the district is unable to arm the staff unless a state ruling against armed school employees is reversed.
The principal of the Georgia school where a shooter was talked down by a school employee last week told reporters this weekend he believes armed police should patrol elementary schools.
