Mike DeWine, the governor of the US state of Ohio has said he will sign a bill that would allow teachers and other adults in schools to be armed as long as they complete up to 24 hours of firearms training. The bill was passed this week by the Ohio Senate following a series of deadly mass shootings.
Currently, in order to carry arms, teachers must become peace officers, undergoing on average more than 700 hours of training. However, the recently passed bill would cut that requirement by more than 95%, according to News 5 Cleveland.
The bill was designed to “remove hundreds of hours of curriculum irrelevant to school safety and to ensure training requirements were specific to a school environment and contained significant scenario-based training,” DeWine said.
The governor argued the legislation would protect both students and teachers.
The bill does not prohibit schools from requiring additional training in order to carry arms or from opting out from having armed people on school grounds altogether. Those bearing arms would be subjected to a criminal background check each year.
The legislation would also create a body called the Ohio School Safety and Crisis Center within the Department of Public safety.