MARSHALL, NC — When schools in one North Carolina county reopen later this month, new security measures will include stockpiling AR-15 rifles for use by school resource officers in case of an active shooter.
Spurred by the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead in May, school officials and Madison County Sheriff Buddy Harwood have placed one of the semi-automatic rifles at each of the county’s six schools. Each of the guns will be locked inside a safe, Harwood said.
North Carolina school district and sheriff’s office collaborate to improve security after Uvalde shooting revealed systemic failures and “horribly poor decision-making” that led to more than an hour of chaos before the gunman was eventually confronted and killed by law enforcement, according to a report written by a Texas House of Representatives investigative committee.
“These officers were in that building for so long, and this suspect was able to infiltrate that building and injure and kill so many children,” Harwood told the Asheville Citizen Times. “I just want to make sure my deputies are prepared in case that happens.”
The idea of having AR-15s in schools doesn’t sit well with Dorothy Espelage, a UNC Chapel Hill professor in the School of Education who has conducted decades of study and research on school safety and well-being of the students
“What’s going to happen is we’re going to have accidents with these weapons,” Espelage told WLOS-TV. Just the presence of an SRO increases violence in schools. There are more arrests of children. Why should they have these AR-15s? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Madison County Schools Superintendent Will Hoffman said school administrators have met regularly with local law enforcement officials, including Harwood, to discuss updated security measures.
Harwood said the county’s school resource officers have been trained with instructors from Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.
Harwood said the safes where the AR-15s will be kept will also contain ammunition and breaching tools for barricaded doors.
“We’ll have these tools so we can break down that door if we have to. I don’t want to have to run back to the car to get an AR, because that’s wasted time. Hopefully we’ll never need it, but I want mine to be as ready as they can be,” he said.
Schools are scheduled to reopen Aug. 22, according to the Madison County Schools website.
While the prospect of school resource officers being able to carry AR-15s in schools may be uncomfortable for some, Harwood said he believes it’s a necessary response.
“I hate that we’ve gotten to a place in our nation where I have to put a safe in our schools and lock it down so my deputies can acquire an AR-15. But, we can turn it off and say it’s not going to happen in the Madison County, but we never know,” Harwood said.