When normal firearms just aren't enough to protect your schools, it becomes necessary to upgrade your equipment to get the job done. This is what the Douglas County School District in Colorado had in mind when it purchased 10 semi-automatic assault rifles for its armed patrol division.
This means that once all the rifles are deployed by the end of August, the security staff will have the same weapons carried by law enforcement.
The move to arm security staff with this state-of-the-art weaponry didn't come cheap or lightly. The school district spent more than $12,000 on the guns and equipment the security officers will be using and it all came out of the school's security budget.
"I can say from lessons learned and looking at all the situations that have happened across the country with shootings that having the correct tools, having the long rifles have helped out in situations," said Rich Payne, Director of Safety and Security for Douglas County Schools. "It's unfortunate, but this is where we have come to."
Payne said that all his security officers have law enforcement experience and already carry handguns. He added that his security officers, equipped only with handguns, were training "hand to hand" with the sheriff's office, which used larger weapons. These security officers will undergo 20 hours of training with the sheriff's department before they're allowed to use them.
"We want to make sure they have the same tools as law enforcement," Payne said Monday of his eight armed officers, noting they will follow the same protocol that the sheriff's department does.
"They will not be in the schools," he said of the weapons.
As one might expect, the decision to introduce automatic weaponry to a school district that has 67,000 students has elicited a range of reactions within the community.
"We've got to keep our kids safe and we've got to keep our staff and community safe, but in my opinion, that's the role of law enforcement, it's not the role of a public school district," said school board member Wendy Vogel.
"If someone is coming at our kids with deadly force, then it should be met with the same deadly force," said school board president Meghann Silverthorn.
Meanwhile, Dan Montgomery, a police and safety consultant and former police chief of Westminster, called the decision "unusual," but conceded that it would be okay so long as the decision is supported.
"One accident in close quarters with these things could be devastating, not only to predators but to the students themselves," Montgomery said. "I would make sure the decision is supported politically and socially."
The rifles are made by Bushmaster, but it's unclear what their specific models or magazine capacities are. Some of them will be handed out as early as this month, while the remainder will come by the end of August.
