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Associated Press
Marshall, North Carolina (AP) — When schools reopen in one North Carolina county later this month, new security measures will include the ability of school resource officers to use in the event of a mass shooting. Includes a stockpile of AR-15 rifles.
School officials and Madison County Sheriff Buddy as spurred by elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and his two teachers in May Harwood has placed one semi-automatic rifle in each of his six schools in the county. Each gun will be locked inside a safe, Harwood said.
School districts and sheriff's offices in North Carolina urged police to step up security after the Uvalde shootings revealed systematic failures and "extremely poor decision-making." The shooter was eventually tracked down and killed by law enforcement, according to a report prepared by the Texas House of Representatives Commission of Inquiry that resulted in confusion more than an hour ago.
"The officers were in the building for so long that the suspect was able to break into the building and injure and kill so many children," Harwood told the Asheville Citizen Times. "I just want to make sure my deputies are prepared just in case." I disagree with Dorothy Espelage, a UNC Chapel Hill professor in the Department of Education, who has been researching and researching for decades.
"What's going to happen is accidents with these guns," Esperage told her WLOS-TV. The mere presence of SROs increases violence in schools. Child arrests are on the rise. Why do you need an AR-15? It makes no sense.
Madison County School Superintendent Will Hoffman said school administrators meet regularly with local law enforcement officials, including Harwood, to discuss the latest safety measures. said.
Harwood said a county school resource officer in Asheville said he was training with an instructor at Buncombe Technical Community College.
Harwood said the vault in which the AR-15 is stored will also store ammunition and barricades.
“We will have a tool that can break through the door if necessary. I hope not, but I want my men to be as prepared as possible," he said.
The school is scheduled to reopen on his Aug. 22, according to the Madison County Schools website.
While some may be offended by the view of the school's resource officer that he could handle an AR-15 at school, Harwood said it was a necessary response. believe.
"It is unfortunate that a situation has arisen in our country where we have to set up a safe in a school and lock it so that a proxy can obtain an AR-15. , you can stop it and say it doesn't happen in Madison County, but I don't know," Harwood said.