46 Ohio school districts allow armed staff members, including 9 in NEO

NORTHEAST, Ohio (WOIO) - Currently, 46 school districts in Ohio have submitted rosters for armed staff programs, including a few that may be closer to home than you think.

According to the Ohio Department of Public Safety, training for armed staff requires at least 24 hours of initial training and eight hours of annual requalification training.

These may be satisfied through successfully completing the OSSC’s ASSET program, or through an organization whose training has been approved by the OSSC.

ODPS said training includes scenario-based and live-fire exercises.

The nine school districts in NEO that submitted rosters for armed staff include:

• Carrollton Exempted Village School District (Carroll County)
• Claymont City (Tuscarawas County)
• Edison Local School District (Erie County)
• Garaway Local Schools (Tuscarawas County)
• Maplewood Career Center (Portage County)
• Newcomerstown Exempted Village School District (Tuscarawas County)
• Streetsboro City Schools (Portage County)
• Trumbull Career and Technical Center (Trumbull County)
• Tuscarawas Valley Local School District (Tuscarawas County)

Streetsboro City School District superintendent Mike Daulbaugh said the school district has had armed staff since 2017 and they must go through extensive training.

“It’s a secret list of non-teaching staff and we have done extensive training,” Daulbaugh said. “We do over 75 hours of training every year.”

Daulbaugh hopes having highly-trained, armed staff can help prevent a tragedy and keep everyone safe.

“Our armed response team, we’re on site so we can hold a situation or respond to a situation quicker than the police department, but when the police department shows up we of course step aside,” Daulbaugh said.

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