By Patricia Beech-
The Manchester Local School District is planning to put guns into the hands of five trained staff members, according to the district’s Superintendent Brian Rau.
Rau announced the decision Monday, Nov. 19 during a meeting of the Manchester Village Council.
He said he believes it’s important each school has someone ready to respond with deadly force in the event of a mass shooting. In addition to Rau, three others addressed community and council members including: Board of Education President Richard Foster, Board of Education member Dave McFarland, School Resource Officer Deputy Anthony Blevins; and Adams County Sheriff’s Deputy Randy Walters.
“The objective is to adopt a resolution in the spring permitting the arming of staff commencing next school year,” Rau said. “Our district is in a very vulnerable predicament, since our community does not have local law enforcement.”
The Manchester Police Department was disbanded in 2017. The town’s only law enforcement is provided by the Adams County Sheriff’s Department. Additionally, a Sheriff’s Deputy serves as the only Resource Officer for the school’s 800-plus students, pre-K through 12th grade.
Rau told the Defender in a phone interview on Monday that arming staff is something he’s been considering for several months.
“The average school shooting last four minutes – if we did have a school shooter, it could take a half hour or longer for first responders to arrive, so there’s no way law enforcement would have time to respond to the scene in four minutes,” he said. “I am tasked with doing everything possible to protect the students and staff in this district, and the Board and I strongly believe that arming the staff is the next step in that assurance.”
The decision to arm select staff members was not made quickly.
Rau said he consulted with several experts before reaching a decision, including: Adams County Prosecuting Attorney David Kelley, John Benner of the Tactical Defense Institute (TDI) in West Union, Don Rabold, Safety Consultant from the Brown County Educational Service Center, and Ted Downing, Superintendent at Bright Local School District, which allows staff members to be armed.
Specialized training from TDI personnel is a prerequisite for staff members who will be armed in the school. As an advocate for arming staff in schools, TDI offers school district’s five free training slots per year, essentially providing the training at no cost to the district.
Training for the staff will be very selective and confidential. Only four people will know which staff members are armed – Superintendent Rau, the current School Resource Officer, a Sheriff’s Deputy, and the armed staff member, which could be a custodian, cook, secretary, or teacher.
“The training teaches them not to put a gun where a kid can get it,” says Rau. “If a teacher has to use a weapon, it will be within reach – first off, but nobody’s going to know they have it.”
The program is strictly voluntary.
“We have a detailed process of selecting volunteers, as well as a multi-level process of vetting staff whom we plan to arm,” Rau said. “Our staff will be trained and certified annually at the Tactical Defense Institute (TDI) and their training is renowned and vigorous. It’s the same training law-enforcement officers receive before going into the field.”
