Floyd school board member suggests arming teachers after Florida high school shooting

FLOYD COUNTY, Ga. — A Floyd County businessman and school board member has suggested arming teachers as a way to increase safety in schools.

The public Facebook message by Jay Shell has garnered more than 700 comments and 250 shares since its weekend post. The comments range  in opinions from supporters to people insisting there are better ways to protect children. It’s all in the wake of the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida where a former student opened fire inside the school, killing 17 people.

"It has opened up some great, positive conversation about keeping our kids safe," Shell told Channel 2's Nicole Carr. "I'm really thankful for that, because it's really opened up my eyes for more social workers to get involved earlier with children," he continued.

Shell’s post acknowledges the idea may not be popular with people. It also discusses costs that could be associated with hiring armed law enforcement to man the schools.

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In the post, Shell said volunteer teachers could undergo ‘psychiatric evaluations and firearms training.

It will all be a part of a discussion in the Tuesday morning  Floyd County Board of Education meeting.

Ashley Dooley and her boyfriend Alejandro Santilan walked hand-in-hand along Broad Street in Rome Monday afternoon.

The day after Nikolas Cruz opened fire on  Parkland High School, Dooley’s mom kept her home from her Chattooga County high school. The scenery is different, she told Carr.

“It’s really scary, honestly,” said Dooley, about the conversation she and her peers are having. “My school has been like bringing in police officers and investigating. They’ve really hardened up in like the past week.”

Santilan graduated from a Floyd County high school in 2017. He disagrees with his girlfriend’s idea that select teachers should be armed, citing the normal conflicts between students and teachers.

“Having arms there, the student’s gonna feel like the teacher is overcoming them,” Santilan said.

“There’s problems between students and teachers. Teachers getting an attitude and trying to be all big in bad in front of them,” said Santilan, as he lifted his shirt to mock a person carrying a gun in their waistband. “That just isn’t it."

Alexis Pinson, 21, remembers thinking about worst-case scenarios in high school.

“I agree all teachers should possibly have guns just in case something like that could happen,” Pisnon said.

Dooley said her friends already do this.

“I’ve had friends who had hid a weapon in their trucks or cars to bring in an instance where they may need it,” Dooley said.

"I'm also open to other ideas," said Oates, as he stood on Broad Street. "So if someone thinks 'Oh, that's a terrible idea to arm teachers,' and can think of something better, then bring the better idea. 
"I don't have that. I don't think that's my specialty."

Shell told his Facebook followers he was open to suggestions, too. He told Carr he’d been taking notes on comments offering alternative ideas for safety, and called it a learning experience. One of the ideas centered around counseling.

“I think it should come down to better training of mental health, said Dooley. “Services are kind of a joke in a lot of schools.”

Santilan talked about access to firearms.

“Make that a little harder to get, because there are some people who don’t deserve it,” he said.

And Oates noted what would be a budget line item for districts—professional officers who carry.

“You’ve got a law officer that can use deadly force if needed, and then you’re not waiting on other officers to arrive,” he said.

Cox Media Group