NEWS

Is concealed carry coming to a school near you?

Michael D. Clark
mclark@enquirer.com
  • Butler County’s Edgewood Schools are only district in the region to allow principals to be armed.
  • Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones backs Edgewood principal being armed.
  • Ohio and Kentucky schools doing more to strengthen school security.

TRENTON – Edgewood High School Principal Russ Fussnecker may soon start his work day by strapping on a gun.

His Butler County school district is the only one among the 63 in Greater Cincinnati that allows school administrators to carry a handgun while on school grounds.

Fussnecker told the Enquirer in an exclusive interview that he plans to arm himself “possibly before the end of this school year.”

“I will get a concealed-carry gun license,” the gun-owning, veteran school administrator said. He will then take the required training from the Butler County Sheriff’s department to earn certification to wield a handgun in a public school building.

“If someone wants to come into a school building and create havoc and cause harm, it is hard to stop them,” he said. An armed principal “will make the school safer.”

Fussnecker’s approach is the latest and perhaps most extreme of a wide range of new security measures at local schools, aiming to prevent the kind of violence that’s stunned the nation elsewhere.

The notion of arming teachers and administrators gained attention after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in Connecticut left 26 students and adults dead.

Earlier this week, Franklin High School in adjacent Warren County went into emergency lockdown when a child-rape suspect was reported in the woods near the school.

Franklin Police swarmed to the school to surround it and guard students as they departed the campus at end of the school day. Police simultaneously searching the area found and arrested 64-year-old Paul Byrd, who is wanted in connection with the rape of a 7-year-old girl and was also charged with carrying a concealed weapon.

Kings Schools last month installed a new door-blocking device in its classrooms – another regional first – designed to keep active shooters from blasting their way in.

And Lakota Schools, which are the region’s third-largest school system, has added school police officers and conducts more frequent active shooter and other security drills.

In Kentucky, two recent laws require schools to review and revise their emergency management plans in cooperation with local law enforcement and train faculty on that plan. A third law requires that four emergency evacuation drills be practiced within the first 30 days of school each year and again in January.

But so far, arming school personnel has been more a topic of debate than of action.

Earlier this year, Boone County Sheriff Mike Helmig tried to convince school officials and residents that arming school staffers would greatly enhance school security. The push for the idea dissipated as public resistance grew, despite the sheriff’s offer of free firearm training and certification instruction for teachers.

Schools in Georgia and South Dakota have so far also ignored new state laws that would allow properly trained and certified principals and teachers to be armed on school grounds.

Under Ohio and Kentucky state law, local school boards can vote to approve the arming of designated school staffers. But neither state departments of education track the number of local school boards that have taken such votes. State education officials note, however, that they are aware of only a handful of districts exercising that option among the more than 750 school systems in the two states.

But more so than any other in our region, Butler County and its schools have been emphasizing building security. Fussnecker and many other school officials credit Sheriff Richard Jones, who has made national headlines since Sandy Hook with some of his safety proposals including using former police and military officers as armed substitute teachers.

The county was among the first locally earlier this year to install emergency “panic” radios giving school principals immediate links to local first responders. Butler County schools also have instituted more frequent visits by sheriff deputies during classes and have encouraged deputies to use school lots to park while they file reports from their cruisers.

“We need to be bold and protect these students,” Jones said.

He said while school security awareness and preparation have improved, “it’s been too slow.”

Jones praised Fussnecker, who has coordinated active school shooting and Sheriff department SWAT trainings at 1,200-student Edgewood High School, just west of the city of Trenton. A military veteran and former assistant football coach and head soccer coach, Fussnecker is in his fourth year as principal.

“Russ really cares about student safety, and he has been at the forefront of these efforts. I’m proud of him, and I’m proud of the Edgewood school board,” Jones said.

Fussnecker echoed the sheriff’s agenda: “I am fully on the same page with the Sheriff Jones,”

Jones said Fussnecker may be the first armed principal in the region but predicts others will soon follow.

“I know of another principal in another school district who is also pursuing this,” Jones said, but declined to identify the administrator or district.

Sheriff Deputy Mark Gilbert, who also works as a school security officer at Edgewood, welcomed the idea of armed principals.

School shootings and violence “is something we all have to live with now.”

“Any more it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when they will happen,” Gilbert said.

Edgewood senior Justin Stapleton has no problem with his principal being armed.

“It would give us more security having people trained like police to protect us,” he said.

Edgewood Superintendent Doug Lantz oversees the five-school, 3,800-student district and said the aftermath of the school system’s historic decision last year has been surprisingly quiet.

“Quite frankly it’s been a non-issue,” Lantz said. “At least until now.”■

About Edgewood and its firearms policy

Edgewood district office: Trenton, in northeast Butler County, west of Middletown

Enrollment: 3,800 students in five schools

Superintendent: Doug Lantz

Students: 38 percent eligible for free or reduced-price school meals

Armed personnel: The district has approved allowing 10 school building principals and eight central office administrators to be armed. First, however, they must complete firearm training, be certified by the Butler County Sheriff’s department and be approved individually by Edgewood Board of Education.

Website: www.edgewoodschools.com