SIDNEY -- Shelby County will soon become the first local county to train educators on how to use weapons.
The Shelby County Sheriff's Office has been meeting with local superintendents and boards of education and will start providing concealed carry firearm training for the school districts' staff.
The training course will be offered to selected teachers and staff by fully trained Shelby County sheriff's deputies with a combined 51 years of experience between them. It will cost local school districts nothing.
"Schools are kind of sitting duck or open prey to somebody that thinks, 'Hey I can go in there because they're defenseless'," said Candy Hoehne, a local parent.
But Shelby County officials said with this new training, schools will soon be ready to defend themselves from a violent situation like we saw recently in Newtown, Connecticut.
"We think it will act as a deterrent. We also feel that we have done a lot of things to secure our buildings but there's nothing that we have in place to actively engage an active shooter," said John Scheu, Sidney Schools Superintendent.
The program is highly selective. Only 40 staff members will get the exclusive training. It will include training for concealed carry, weapons safety and storage, tactics for handling weapons, dealing with suspects, and basic gunshot first aid.
Scheu says he's received emails from 10 people already interested.
We asked some parents about the idea and received this feedback.
"It could happen anywhere, anytime you can protect your children I think its a great idea, I'm all for it," said Hoehne.
"I think it's a great idea. I mean I don't see any other way you can stop a situation from happening unless you have the same kind of force," said Brent Swearingen, a father of two young girls in the Fairlawn School District.
We asked Superintendent Scheu if districts plans to arm its teachers once they are trained.
"I don't know if we're going to go that direction or not but certainly having uniformed officers in the schools is something we are seriously considering and having a response team of teachers, administrators and staff that are trained to assist in some manner," he said.
The first session is February 26. It's a 16-hour course that will be spread over weeks.
Twelve hours will include classroom instruction and then the last four will be spent at the Sheriff's Office gun range.
School administrators can contact Sheriff Lenhart by calling 937-498-7833 to schedule training for their staff.
Earlier coverage:
SHELBY COUNTY -- The Shelby County Sheriff announces a new gun training program aimed at educating teachers on how to use guns. The program will train teachers and school administrators on how to use and carry firearms.
Shelby County Sheriff John Lenhart has been meeting with superintendents and school boards around the county to establish the parameters of the training program.
What they decided on is a 16-hour course, with 12 hours of classroom training and four hours of gun training at a shooting range.
There is no word which schools in the county plan to participate. We have a crew in Shelby County and will bring you the full story tonight on FOX 45 at 10 and ABC 22 at 11.
The Shelby County Sheriff's Office has been meeting with local superintendents and boards of education and will start providing concealed carry firearm training for the school districts' staff.
The training course will be offered to selected teachers and staff by fully trained Shelby County sheriff's deputies with a combined 51 years of experience between them. It will cost local school districts nothing.
"Schools are kind of sitting duck or open prey to somebody that thinks, 'Hey I can go in there because they're defenseless'," said Candy Hoehne, a local parent.
But Shelby County officials said with this new training, schools will soon be ready to defend themselves from a violent situation like we saw recently in Newtown, Connecticut.
"We think it will act as a deterrent. We also feel that we have done a lot of things to secure our buildings but there's nothing that we have in place to actively engage an active shooter," said John Scheu, Sidney Schools Superintendent.
The program is highly selective. Only 40 staff members will get the exclusive training. It will include training for concealed carry, weapons safety and storage, tactics for handling weapons, dealing with suspects, and basic gunshot first aid.
Scheu says he's received emails from 10 people already interested.
We asked some parents about the idea and received this feedback.
"It could happen anywhere, anytime you can protect your children I think its a great idea, I'm all for it," said Hoehne.
"I think it's a great idea. I mean I don't see any other way you can stop a situation from happening unless you have the same kind of force," said Brent Swearingen, a father of two young girls in the Fairlawn School District.
We asked Superintendent Scheu if districts plans to arm its teachers once they are trained.
"I don't know if we're going to go that direction or not but certainly having uniformed officers in the schools is something we are seriously considering and having a response team of teachers, administrators and staff that are trained to assist in some manner," he said.
The first session is February 26. It's a 16-hour course that will be spread over weeks.
Twelve hours will include classroom instruction and then the last four will be spent at the Sheriff's Office gun range.
School administrators can contact Sheriff Lenhart by calling 937-498-7833 to schedule training for their staff.
Earlier coverage:
SHELBY COUNTY -- The Shelby County Sheriff announces a new gun training program aimed at educating teachers on how to use guns. The program will train teachers and school administrators on how to use and carry firearms.
Shelby County Sheriff John Lenhart has been meeting with superintendents and school boards around the county to establish the parameters of the training program.
What they decided on is a 16-hour course, with 12 hours of classroom training and four hours of gun training at a shooting range.
There is no word which schools in the county plan to participate. We have a crew in Shelby County and will bring you the full story tonight on FOX 45 at 10 and ABC 22 at 11.