Virginia school system sues state in quest to arm teachers - Polidicks

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/virginia-school-system-sues-state-in-quest-to-arm-teachers/2019/01/16/6eae5ed6-190e-11e9-9ebf-c5fed1b7a081_story.html?utm_term=.aa8185d5a379 Virginia school system sues state in quest to arm teachers https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/qAAfc66QHhGjyExCR_I10OPqcGw=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/7U7D43G65YI6LDMYJM6ZEFNN4E.jpg A school system in deep southwestern Virginia has filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s decision to bar the system’s employees from carrying firearms. Lee County Public Schools is asking a circuit court judge to order the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services to allow the system’s superintendent to become a special conservator of the peace, a designation county officials believe would permit him to carry a gun on school property. “We believe that we have legal grounds to provide this as an option to our staff and to provide an additional layer of security for our students,” Superintendent Brian Austin said. The lawsuit names Shannon Dion, director of the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, and Brian Moran, state secretary of public safety and homeland security, as defendants. Dion did not respond to a message seeking comment. Moran declined to comment on pending litigation. A spokesman for Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) reiterated Herring’s view that the county’s plan is unlawful. “Attorney General Herring has explained in an official opinion that Virginia state law does not allow for armed teachers, and for good reason,” spokesman Michael Kelly said. “We will work with our client agency to respond to the suit in court.”

While I'm against forcing teachers to carry, or arming teachers as a substitute to actual security, I don't see why a licences CCW holder shouldn't be able to. They're allowed to carry other places, carrying the same risks.

If you arm teachers, then it'll just be the teachers doing the school shootings.

I really wish that the media and people in general would just stop with the wording on display here. No one is saying that we should literally arm teachers by some mandate, just simply allowing them to be armed if they already meet the requirements to do so, and choose to. I'm sick of misleading wording, it is disengenuous and just plain wrong.

Because every soccer mom is going to go “Oh my god are you saying we need to arm teachers with MuRdEr MaChInEs?!?!?! Weapons of war don’t belong in the classroom!”, despite the fact that: schools had shooting teams in decades past without school shootings school resource officers already carry guns armed civilians are less likely to shoot an innocent than police officers You got any facts to back that up for the places in our country which do allow teachers to concealed carry?