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.”
Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith holds a Teachers Academy course where educators can learn how to respond in an active shooter event.
This intensive 20-hour course includes ‘shoot to kill’ training and target practice.
Christy Belt, a second grade teacher at the Timpanogos Academy, told Dailymail.com that the program helped her to determine what she would do if a potential threat entered her school.
She explained that the teachers who participated in the program went through a simulation where police pretended to be threats.
Belt practiced how to block the door to prevent the shooter from getting inside, run to her desk, and grab an unloaded gun by the time the threat entered the classroom.
‘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 added.
Belt added that the course also taught them statistics on school shootings, and helped them implement de-escalation tactics.
She said that although teachers shouldn’t be mandated to take the courses, she believes it should be encouraged so that they can better prepare themselves for the potential of an active shooter situation.
The Utah State Board of Education also offers prevention training in partnership with Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines to catch threats before they enter the school.
Dr Dewey Cornell, a forensic clinical psychologist and Professor of Education with the University of Virginia, created the CSTAG model to train educators on prevention tactics.
Cornell told Dailymail.com that his research has concluded that many school shootings are averted because a student reported a classmate who was planning to incite violence.
‘Prevention involves building relationships with students and helping them to resolve conflicts before they escalate into violence,’ Cornell said.
He added that schools should invest their resources in prevention measures.
‘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,’ Cornell said.
‘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.’
Prevention measures have been prioritized by gun safety activists as well, many of whom have criticized Utah’s laws allowing teachers to carry firearms.
After the state passed the law last March, Moms Demand Action, whose parent company is Everytown for Gun Safety, released a statement condemning the new policy.
‘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.
‘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.’
Representative Ryan Wilcox initially proposed two bills that included requirements for school resource officer training, and added emergency communication systems to schools.
Senator Don Ipson co-sponsored one of the bills that was signed into law on March 14 of last year. Over $2million in general funds was allocated to the implementation of the law.
Other states including Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming also allow school employees to carry guns on school property in some capacity.
Everytown has frequently advocated against these tactics, citing studies that show even highly trained law enforcement officers lose their ability to shoot accurately under stressful situations.
Everytown also argued that expecting teachers to neutralize an active shooter, which could potentially be a student of theirs, is ‘dangerous and unrealistic’.
