Virginia School Votes to Arm School Staff

A school board in Lee County, Virginia voted to arm school staff. That makes 19 states with programs in place. Summertime is when most teachers and staff are available for training. Across the country, hundreds of staff will take their first classes to become armed defenders. Others will take the advanced classes that are only available to staff who’ve been armed in school for the past year. Preparations don’t stop there.

Armed staff can quickly stop a murderer in our schools. That saves the next victim from being injured. It also allows staff to treat the wounded until EMTs arrive. Fortunately, we’ve seen a surge in school staff who want to learn trauma care. While armed staff is controversial in some states, emergency medical treatment isn’t. Every school can have trauma care training in a month.

Have you asked your local school how many staff are trained and equipped to provide trauma care?

Unfortunately, Virginia law makes it unnecessarily difficult to arms school staff. The local sheriff has to designate selected school staff as “peace officers” so that they may carry on school grounds.