Teachers at schools in Utah have the option of opting into gun training and being trained to “shoot to kill.” It’s part of a move in the state to protect against potential school shootings.
Schools in the state also deployed a guardian program, which sees an armed guardian patrolling the hallways as well as the classrooms. This person is essentially a volunteer and can’t be a teacher or school staff. However, Republican Governor Spencer Cox also signed last March legislation that would allow teachers to carry firearms in the school.
It’s called the Educator-Protector Program, and it’s had both supporters as well as critics. Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith is holding a course where teachers can learn how to act in an active shooter event. The training teaches educators who carry firearms at school to shoot to kill.
Speaking with Daily Mail, Christy Belt, a teacher, opened up about the training program. She said the training taught her how to block the door to retrieve her firearm in time.
Teachers Trained To Shoot
“I have things that I can do and plans for how to do it so it helps me feel more powerful, more in charge,” she said.
Meanwhile, Dewey Cornell, a forensic clinical psychologist and Professor of Education with the University of Virginia, created his own prevention training for educators. Cornell teaches prevention and identifying warning signs instead.
“Prevention involves building relationships with students and helping them to resolve conflicts before they escalate into violence,” Cornell said. “In schools, we have special challenges because students are less mature and more impulsive than adults, and are more likely to make threatening statements that are not serious.”
He continued, “Schools want to avoid overreacting to threats that are not serious and at the same time, recognize when a threat is serious and take appropriate actions.”
.45 ACP baller shirt: for guns that win world wars.
Several people criticize Utah’s carry laws. Instead, they should focus on preventive methods. Moms Demand Action, whose parent company is Everytown for Gun Safety, condemned the law in a statement.
“Let’s keep our educators centered on what they do best – teaching. We should be working on finding ways to keep guns out of the wrong hands and out of the classroom – not inviting them into our schools,” Jaden Christensen, a volunteer with the Utah chapter of Moms Demand Action said in a statement.
[Moms Demand Action are typically not at all supportive of any Molon Labe sentiments.]
She continued, “It’s shameful that this new law will do the opposite. We urge lawmakers on both sides and Governor Cox to come together and work on comprehensive gun safety policies that tackle our state’s suicide crisis, and protect our kids and communities, from Salt Lake City to St. George, from senseless acts of gun violence.”
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