Education: What kind of training should school staff undergo if they choose to carry firearms?

 “What kind of training should school staff undergo if they choose to carry firearms?”

The level of training required before a school staff member can voluntarily carry firearms at work should vary by their role in protecting the school students and staff against attack. The roles would be “Static Defenders” and “Active Responders”. Not all schools/districts would choose to have Active Responders - preferring to let Law Enforcement Officers perform that task without school staff assistance.

Most school staff who choose to be armed would be “static defenders” and should only have to meet the same training standard required of any other carrier in their state. If the state has carry permits, then staff should be allowed to carry at work simply by getting such a permit. In “Constitutional Carry” states, there is no training requirement.

Static Defenders:

The role of these staff members in the event of an attack would be the same as armed citizens in other workplaces - take cover and use the firearm to defend themself and others. If you take what is a pretty standard classroom response to an “armed intruder” event, and add an armed teacher, we get:

Standard: Alarm is raised, teachers lock building and classroom doors, close windows and blinds, turn off lights, and have students hide behind them in the classroom.

Armed teacher variant: All of the normal stuff, but the armed teacher/staff member takes covered position between door and where students are, draws firearm, and engages intruder when they break into the room. Intruder is in a “known fatal funnel”, intruder is probably backlit, intruder is at a range of less than 30 feet. Armed staff member is in a supported firing position, in cover and concealment.

This is just about the simplest self defense scenario imaginable, and closely matches the experience of going to a shooting range. The armed staff member knows where the target will be, is not shooting very far, and is likely to be in a physically comfortable position, with physical support.

At this basic level, the staff member could be carrying their firearm (concealed or open carry), or have it available in a locked container (ie: a safe) in their work area, and access it in this kind of situation. This would allow the staff member to have a rifle or shotgun to defend the room with, not just a handgun.

Active Responders:

If the school/district chooses to add a second category of armed staff - an “Active Responder” - who would move around the campus to seek out and engage the armed intruder as part of an active response team, staff who volunteered for that category should undergo additional tactical, marksmanship, and “shoot/no-shoot” scenario training, along with training at the school site alongside local law enforcement, as they would be teaming with LEOs to move around the campus to actively seek out the armed intruders.

The Active Responder role also requires that the staff member not be leaving a group of students undefended. This means that it is well suited to custodial staff, admin, or others who tend to not be working with groups of students. Custodians and admins also tend to have master key sets, allowing access to all buildings and rooms on campus. A classroom teacher could be part of the Active Responder team, but this would require a plan to ensure that their class was being defended by another staff member, allowing them to leave and join the Active Responder team. Active Responders would need radios and some sort of identification (ie: badges) could have rifles or shotguns in safes, body armor and helmets, and even special vests or smocks to put on over their clothing to help identify them.