In the wake of numerous massacres on school grounds, many educational institutions – particularly colleges – have armed officers with high-powered weapons to defend against active campus shooters.
And now at least one public school district is following suit. The Douglas County School District in Colorado has purchased 10 semiautomatic rifles to arm its security officers, a district spokeswoman confirmed.
Director of security Richard Payne told the Denver Post that the Bushmaster “long guns” would be kept locked in patrol cars – “they will not be in the schools” – and issued to officers after they complete the same 20-hour course that commissioned police officers complete.
“They will only be deployed if there is a situation where they need to be deployed,” Payne said in a KDVR report.
He added: “Our main focus is to make sure that all of the students, staff, parents and community members are safe when they’re on any of our school properties.”
Eight armed security officers, all former law enforcement officers, work for the Douglas County School District, district spokeswoman Paula Hans told The Post. These officers, unlike the district’s 56 unarmed campus security officers, will receive the rifles after training.
Hans said Payne’s team trained with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in July 2015. “They recognized the sheriff’s deputies are often using long rifles during training, and that’s how the discussion began,” she said.
The school district is large, covering roughly 900-square miles, Hans said. “There may be an incident when our armed security patrol are the first to respond,” she said.
